Abstract
The population of older adults in the U.S is continuously increasing. With this comes an increased number of individuals with Alzheimer’s or other dementia related disease (ADRD), along with the need for quality care for these individuals. The use of activities to increase engagement has been shown to have a number of psychological benefits, especially when these activities are tailored to the abilities and preferences of the individual. However, individualizing activity programming is not always feasible for activity and care staff. The purpose of this study was to use a stimulus preference assessment to identify Montessori-based activities that persons with cognitive impairment can do independently. An engagement-based stimulus preference assessment was used to identify preferred activities for two older adults with ADRD with severe cognitive impairment. The most and least preferred items were validated by measuring length of time engaging in the materials. The results indicated both participants spent more time with the most preferred activity compared to the least preferred activity, as well as the ability to engage independently with the activity.
Advisor
Jeffrey Buchanan
Committee Member
Angelica Aguirre
Committee Member
Kevin Filter
Date of Degree
2020
Language
english
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Psychology
College
Social and Behavioral Sciences
Recommended Citation
Smith, K. D. (2020). Assessing preferences for Montessori-based activities in persons with memory impairment [Master’s thesis, Minnesota State University, Mankato]. Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works for Minnesota State University, Mankato. https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/etds/1060/
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Included in
Rights Statement
