Story telling, more specifically the process of creating a story and recounting it, encourages memory care residents to think divergently and be engaged. Story telling also helps build relationships between staff and the resident.

To start off, use pictures as a prompt to help your resident generate story ideas. From there, encourage them to develop their idea into a story about the picture. Examples of pictures can be as simple as calendar pictures, or they can be of friends, family and their past. Ask questions to help them along if they get stuck in the story telling. One of the advantages of this exercise is that it doesn't require your resident to remember anything in detail. It simply trains their mind to think more clearly.

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