dementia caregivers

Memory kit in local library

Memory Kits – what to ask for

Reading for dementia

If you’re a care partner, and your person lives with dementia or cognitive loss, you may be struggling to find ways to really engage them. It’s wonderful to walk into a public library and see Memory Kits on display – kits full of activities designed to engage and stimulate, to get conversations going, to bring pleasure rather than frustration.

But what if you’ve never seen a Memory Kit and don’t know what you’re looking for – or even that they exist? I was at an event recently and met several home care providers who hadn’t heard of them (probably not yet offered by libraries in their area). So let’s look together at Memory Kits and what to ask for at YOUR local library.

What they’re called…

The language varies: they could be known as Memory Kits, Memory Care Kits, Dementia Care Kits, Memory Bags, Reminiscence Kits, or Active Minds Kits. I’ve heard of ‘Mind Alive’ kits, ‘Memory Minder’ kits and ‘Healthy Brain’ kits.

The kits could be divided even further, into Sensory Kits and Activity Kits. There may be themes, like food, gardening, ‘Men’s Shed’ or seasonal themes. The kits may be part of a ‘Library of Things’.

You may not actually see them on display because they are part of a home delivery system. Or the library staff may tell you that they are not yet in stock, but being planned, or included in next year’s budget, or on their ‘wish list’… in which case, keep asking! Libraries always try to meet local needs.

What would you expect to find inside a kit?

Here are the contents of the bag you saw in the first picture…

Generally, you’d expect a selection of some of these things…it will vary from library to library:

  • Photographs (both new and retro)
  • Conversation starter cards
  • Sorting games, card games, dominoes
  • Books, including ‘no text’ or ‘low text’ picture books (for adults, not children)
  • Simple jigsaw puzzles with a relevant theme
  • Colouring pages, puzzle pages
  • Tactile objects to fit the theme, like fabric swatches or vintage tools
  • Fidget toys
  • Music CDs or DVDs, or music boxes
  • Nostalgic items
  • Supportive books or leaflets for care partners – and instructions for you on how to use the kit

You can also find librarians showing the contents of their library’s memory kits on YouTube… just search and enjoy.

What do you do with a Memory Kit?

You can’t just drop it on the table and expect your person to look at it and be entertained. The kit is for you to share with them. So start off by looking at the Carer Guide or Carer Tips.

Then open up the kit and look together at what’s inside. Let your person handle the items. You might observe them and ask open-ended questions that relate the objects to their lives. You’re looking for questions that allow them to speak with authority and to share who they are with you. (Remember to leave up to 90 seconds for them to gather their thoughts before they reply… it can take time.)

“Carrot seeds! You’ve grown a lot of vegetables in your time… what was your secret?”

“That music makes me want to tap my feet. Was that the kind of music you danced to back in the day?”

“I‘m not sure what that picture is – is it an old radio, do you think? …. Really? Did your family have one like that?”

What are the benefits?

There are benefits for your person, of course. The value of reminiscence, of being an expert again, of finding activities that don’t cause anxiety, as well as the cognitive stimulation. (If your person is already enrolled in a cognitive stimulation therapy programs, that’s wonderful. The program leader will probably also have suggestions for making the most of the activities.)

There are also benefits for you, the care partner.

  • As you find ways to engage your person and to connect with them, it’s going to lift your spirits.
  • Libraries invest in quality items, so you can try them out before you spend money to buy your own. You might find that the giant playing cards are of no interest, but that easy themed jigsaws are perfect.
  • Your person’s capacity will change over time, and that’s when the different activities become so valuable. When word puzzles become too complex, you might try a sorting game.

So ask at your local library and see what’s available… or available nearby, or likely to be available soon.

Thanks to Subiaco Library! And thanks also to all those other libraries that have Memory Care Kits!

Covers of hardcover visitor books for dementia patients and eldercare

New: hardcover visitor books!

Dementia-friendly books

I know from the memoir books that some people prefer a hardcover book as more durable, and I wondered whether that might be true for visitor and guest books as well? Yes, it has taken me a while to get this happening, but at last I have the books uploaded, and ready to go! So these are hardcover versions of the most popular visitor books…

What are these visitor and guest books about?

They’re not just a ‘name and date’ entry. The whole point is for visitors to make it clear who they are (old colleague, grandson?), write a few lines about the visit, and key things they talked about, say if they brought anything or took anything away, then finally leave any special messages or the date of the next visit. You can see what I mean in this example:

Who are they for?

I call the visitor and guest books ‘dementia-friendly’, but that’s not the only use. They’re for anyone in residential care or at home, who is likely to have visitors, but might have problems remembering who came, what they talked about, or what they brought.

So this might mean someone living with brain changes, but also someone recovering from surgery, or from a stroke, or taking meds that make them sleepy, or living with disability or chronic conditions that affect concentration. The visitor can write in the book themselves, or the book owner can do their own writing after the visitor disappears.

Benefits of a visitor book

I love getting feedback on these books, because the reviews always talk about the pleasure a loved one has in re-reading the entries and reliving the delight of the visits.

It’s also such a relief for care partners to know who has visited, to know who left the grapes and where the photo album has gone (when someone has taken it to scan to digital). My dear mum often had a hard time recalling who had left the flowers in her room. I was so lucky that my dad could keep track, but that’s not the case for everyone.

Practical details

The interiors are the same, but the books are slightly bigger in size than the original soft cover books. That’s because the closest hardcover size available is 8.25 x 11. (Soft cover guest books are 8 x 10 and visitor books are 8.5 x 8.5.)

The new hardback books are available in the UK and in the US, but alas not yet in Australia (unless you pay massive postal charges). I’ve created the most popular two cover styles for each book, to cater for different tastes, and I hope they are useful to someone, somewhere!

Read-along with Illustrated Nature Poetry

Uncategorized

I’ve started recording the verses from Illustrated Nature Poetry, and putting them on YouTube.

The idea is that a care partner can play them for a ‘listen and read’ or ‘listen and read-along’ experience. Here’s a link to the growing playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv0Cnf1PQ5rIeiY16bUccl4sXuVSkC7Eh

Why is this needed? Well, all these books can be enjoyed as a shared reading experience. However, it’s possible that not all care partners will feel confident to read classic poetry aloud. Maybe they’re not a poetry fan, or maybe English is a language they are still learning… If that is so, then hopefully this audio can make the shared reading experience more fun.

Each poem has its own short video. I introduce the poem in a chatty voice, then read the poem twice, with the second reading a little slower, to allow someone to read along, if they’d like to. ‘If they’d like to’ is an important point, as I don’t want anyone to feel pressured. In fact, I got feedback when I trialled this audio, reminding me to make that very clear!

I’ll keep recording and hopefully soon have all 19 poems done. I’ll also make a short introductory video for care partners, to suggest ways they can extend the reading to include discussion and reminiscence.

I hope this will be useful! Let me know!

The Perfect Pie dementia-friendly short stories by Cathy Emma Laybourn cover of book

The Perfect Pie: Memory-friendly short stories

Dementia-friendly books

I promised I’d write some dementia-friendly fiction, but I haven’t quite got there yet. However, my lovely sister Emma writes magazine short stories and children’s books (amongst other things!) and has always encouraged me in my memory-friendly writing. So a while ago, I asked if she would consider writing some short stories adapted for mild cognitive loss.

As I’m sure you know, people living with early brain changes often find that while they can still read, they get confused as they turn the page… Who am I reading about? What’s going on? They may still want to read a story with a plot (rather than description only), but they need a little unobtrusive support to stay with the story.

Now here’s the result of Emma’s work! Two collections of large print, ‘feel-good’ stories of everyday life, the kind you’d find in a magazine. However, each new spread has a small reminder at the top of the page of who the characters are and what the story is about. Then as you read down the page, there are more small, subtle reminders of what’s happening. Here’s an example from The Perfect Pie and other stories (by Cathy Emma Laybourn).

First page of dementia-friendly story, The Perfect Pie
Second and third page of dementia-friendly story, The Perfect Pie. We see how the subtle repeats support memory.

These memory-friendly stories feature relatable situations, for example:

The Perfect Pie – Brian has promised to cook a meal for his friend Larry. But Larry keeps changing his mind about his favourite food! What can Brian do?
The Beach Hunt – Moira and her grand-daughter Sophie are enjoying a day on the beach, when Sophie loses a shell bracelet. However, Moira has a solution.
The Lost List – Alec arrives at the supermarket without his shopping list. But thanks to his helpful nature, he ends up with a few new friends as well as all his shopping.
A Change of Garden – Jean is moving to a new flat. Although she’s looking forward to it, she will miss her garden, and especially its bird life. But her son has a surprise waiting at her new home.

Friends and family always feature, as Emma herself says:

When writing for various magazines, no matter what type of stories I wrote, the importance of friendships and family was always central – and that’s true of these stories as well.

She lives in the UK, so there are a few references to money as ‘pounds’ or to ‘thrushes and greenfinches’ in the garden, but the story themes are universal, featuring the challenges and successes of life, with a feel-good ending:

I’ve used simplified, linear storylines and straightforward but not childish language, as well as plenty of memory prompts within the story. I tried to avoid depicting the characters as elderly (although there are a couple of stories about grand-parents and their children) because not all people with memory loss are elderly, and not all elderly people think of themselves as old!

If you’d like to take a proper look, here are the links to The Perfect Pie and other stories and A Robin in the House and other stories. These are universal links to the Amazon store in your country.

All very exciting – and hopefully inspiring to me to do some of my own memory-friendly fiction writing … thanks, Emma!

Dementia Action Week and beyond…

Dementia awareness events

Dementia Action week is over, and I had such an absorbing time – meeting RPH staff, and so many great people from other organisations, on the ‘bridge’ (a busy thoroughfare between buildings). Lots of meaningful conversations with members of the general public and staff members on their way somewhere – and also a few people averting their eyes, or mumbling ‘not for me’, as they hurried past. The word ‘dementia’ is a confronting one for so many of us, and yet there was so much wonderful information from places like Dementia Australia, CarersWA, and Alzheimer’s WA on getting an early diagnosis, or getting support – not just leaflets, but personalised advice from people who work in the field!

I missed one day, to attend the Dementia Symposium, for a wealth of input on current services, provision and initiatives – and also so much connection and warmth. A lot of learning for me, since this isn’t my professional area (that’s adult education, if you haven’t yet seen my ‘about’ page). Then more fascinating learning (and more great connections) last week, at the Edith Cowan University Preventative Health and Positive Ageing Summit. A huge thanks to all the organisers and people who put so much time and effort in to share what they know – and what the rest of us need to know…

A writer living with dementia…

Dementia awareness events

It’s Dementia Awareness Week here in Australia, and its World Alzheimer’s month in the US.

This is a poignant article about famous children’s author Robert Munsch, now living with Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and reflecting on how this affects his life and his creativity. I am always so moved when people with that lived experience of dementia share their new reality and what it means for them…

Here’s the article, from the New York Times, by Katie Engelhart (Sept. 14, 2025).

Welcome to my ‘dementia-friendly books’ site!

Dementia-friendly books

Hello! I’m Clare Harris from Unforgettable Notes (Memory-friendly books). Thanks for finding me!

Up until now, I’ve been using a page on my ESL/Adult Education site, The Book Next Door, to show the world my memory-friendly books, but now they need their own site, and this is it! It’s a work in progress, so bear with me…

If you’re interested in my books, there’s a link to each one in the menu bar above. You can also find all my books on the Amazon site for your country. Here’s a universal link: https://mybook.to/UnforgettableNotes

As for this blog, well, I’ll be posting about my books, about other dementia-friendly books I find, and about new research on dementia and reading.