Children & Alzheimer's

Children are, like us, initially afraid of what they don't understand. When their family member doesn't remember their name or behaves in unexpected ways, children may avoid him. Chaildren can be taught about memory loss through professional coaching in the safety of their home. When they understand why their grampa, for instance, is like he is, and especially how they can relate with him again, their acceptance will come.
There are wonderful books for children of all ages expalining memory loss. A wonderful color filled story, The Magic Tape Recorder by Joyce Simard is one of my favorites. The explains how the brain of the person with Alzheimer's is like a tape recorder that is filled up with all the events and knowledge gained in that person's life. The tape is full, so new information is hard to perhaps impossible to be recorded. Besides that, the tape is so full, it is crumbling and losing what is recorded backwards. I actually find this metaphor useful for professional audiences to understand memory loss progression from immediate to short term to long term memory. All of us understand forgetfulness, or memory lapse; few can really grasp what memory loss means.
I am reading Still Alice today, a book that vividly describes experiences of an early stage patient with Alzheimer's. Get the book; it is a gem! The author is Lisa Genova. It is sad, disturbingly real and a very good read.
Coach Beverly