Gail

I play a version of this game with similar questions, and call it “Ring Your Bell.” We have a set of handbells and some small tambourines in our activity dept. I tell the residents (all with Dementia) to ring their bell if they ever had a dog, travelled to Ireland, camped in a tent, etc. They seem to really enjoy this, especially since each bell is pitched to a different note, and the bells sound beautiful together.

At our facility, we play the exact same game as hangman but call it wheel of fortune. We draw the blank spaces for a word or phrase, and when a chosen letter is not in the word, we simply write that letter at the top of the whiteboard - no need to draw anything for incorrect letters.

I work in an memory care assisted living residence. We are doing the switch in the opposite direction. We have had a system in which the winner of the game earns a “bingo buck” (laminated play money) and trades them in a week or two later for larger prizes. This doesn’t seem to work well, as all of our residents have dementia and don’t remember why they get to select a prize at a later date. It is very confusing for them. We are hoping to change to a candy bar or something else as an immediate feedback prize for our residents who all live in the present moment.