My father is having some memory issues, and a new game system for playing cards that I invented helps him remember various dates. Some of your adult day center folks might be helped by my card game, PLAY4D...

CALENDAR DIMENSIONS

PLAY4D Playing Cards are standard playing cards that have been enhanced with calendar dimensions. These calendar dimensions are mapped to traditional suits:

Years are mapped to Spades
Months are mapped to Hearts
Dates-of-Month are mapped to Diamonds
Days-of-Week are mapped to Clubs

You can use the date components of PLAY4D Calendar Playing Cards to help those with memory challenges remember the current year, month, date-of-month and/or day-of-week. Integrating calendar-based bonuses into playing card games can substantially reinforce remembering the current date.

A great game you can play with 2-5 of your adult day center folks, is PLAY4D RUMMY ... just add one or more calendar bonuses to a regular game of Rummy or 500 Rum. Simply add the playing card with the current month on it as a bonus card. For example, if it's presently the month of "OCTOBER", then the "OCTOBER" playing card (mapped to the 10 of Hearts) becomes a bonus card worth "X" amount of points. You can use one of the POINT ASSIGNMENT cards included in the 27-Card PLAY4D game system deck to create and display bonus points. You can also use birthday bonuses to make playing cards more fun and help folks remember their birthday.

It sounds complicated, but it's really quick and easy ... especially since you're just adding one or more bonuses to playing card games folks already know and love.

The great thing about PLAY4D is that you can also use the PLAY4D Calendar Playing Cards as standard playing cards for those folks who aren't up for a challenge on a given day.

POINT ASSIGNMENT DISPLAY CARDS

There are also twelve POINT ASSIGNMENT cards with various values on them. You could use these cards to display the standard point values for cards in addition to the PLAY4D calendar bonuses. For example, if you choose to play rummy without any calendar bonuses, you can still use the POINT ASSIGNMENT cards to display standard point values. My dad found this really helpful. By displaying the house point values we have used for many years, he could easily see that the JOKER was worth 50 points, the queen of spades was worth 40 points, the aces were worth 15 points, all other face cards were worth 10 points and all other non-face cards were worth 5 points.

My new game will be available on November 1, 2009.

If you'd like more information, please let me know.

Thanks for starting this discussion!

-Randy

I would agree that Blokus is good for the elderly with Alzheimer’s. I too have found that when gaming with the elderly that they want to play but many times get frustrated with the memory games so light memory games, or revising the rules a bit until they learn them is good. I did this with Snorta at a game night I had with the elderly. The game that went over the best though was Likewise by Buffalo Games. They liked the party game idea and simple rules and laughs. It allowed them to think, work together, draw and write answers and be silly. Below is a link to a post and pictures on my blog about my recent gaming with the elderly this past September.

http://buffalogamebuffsblog.com/2009/09/30/family-game-night-september-2009/

Hi,

when I was brought up with my uncle, who had the Down's syndrom, we had two games, we both enjoyed - so maybe they are helpful to you, even though I have no experience with people having Alzheimer's disease. But our games had to be simple and fun as well - so here they are:

- one was a card game we played, called "Black Peter", very easy, fun to play and entertaining for hours. It can be played with a normal set of cards and one joker. It best works with more then two players. Each player gets 4 cards. The goal is to get 4 cards of a kind (like 4 eights etc.). So what you do is, you hold your cards and the other players are allowed to draw from you hand and vice versa - but you have to be carefull not to get the Joker - the black Peter.  Here in Germany it is called 'Schwarzer Peter' and we had a special set, but I have found the rules on Wikipedia for you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_maid_(card_game), even though there it has a differnt name. I am sure your clients will enjoy it! You do not have to remember anything - just collect and enjoy company.

- maybe the second one is not for everyone, but never the less, it was to place a fairly large cotton ball on a table cloth that was not made out of smooth fabric. Then each of us would be sitting on the opposite side of the table and had to blow the cotton ball over an imaginery line deviding the table in half. Winner was who was able to blow the cotton ball on the other one's half of the table. Maybe it sounds silly - but we loved it !

- and also, ever tried 'Domino'  for them? It is very much played in Britain. All you need is matching pieces.

All the best from Hamburg, Germany!

Angela

Hi again,

it appears, I have mixed up two easy card games in my previous message. Sorry for this!

The card game in which you collect 4 of a kind is called 'Happy Families' (German: Quartett). Very simple and entertaining. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Families

The one called 'Old Maid' (German: Schwarzer Peter) is a different one, but simple as well. LInk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_maid_(card_game)

I believe, which one is best may depend on how well your clients are still doing.