Simple, repeatable sensory activities may often help reduce agitation in seniors experiencing dementia. With the right environment, such as calm lighting and clear use of color, you can turn this into a safe and engaging activity without over-stimulation. Discover what works for your loved one or the person you care for by doing this at that person's most active time of day, which for many people is just after lunchtime.
At The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara, we are well aware of the importance of finding new ways to connect with our residents in Santa Barbara, CA. This concern is why we were excited to read that, according to a recent study by Octary et al. (2025), sensory activities may help calm the nervous systems of some individuals with dementia. These results suggest that sparking better connections with those seniors living with memory loss can involve many of the steps we already take to engage with our residents, with a few tweaks.
It's essential to learn practical ways to tailor such sensory activities to each resident's likes and dislikes when it comes to their perception. Such dementia and Alzheimer's activity ideas include creating safe environments and gentle prompting to avoid overwhelming.
Person-centered care, an approach that we take at The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara, revolves around ensuring each resident's personal dignity receives the support it needs while motivating each individual to have a complete and fulfilling life. To support this, we leverage some of the following structured sensory moments to help avoid over- or under-stimulation:
Matching these activities to each senior's attention span can often reduce frustration. In many cases, this involves taking small steps to complete larger tasks. At other times, having a familiar or preferred activity can help calm the individual, along with predictability.
These steps also allow us to offer repeated validation, creating small, gentle success experiences for the senior. Doing this can often reduce the likelihood that the resident will have a negative reaction due to overwhelm or boredom.
When setting up a space to engage with the senior or seniors in question, aim to use calm lighting with little glare. You also want to limit echoes. These steps can often reduce confusion or discomfort caused by sight and sound.
You also want to use consistent color contrast across clearly distinct spaces. For example, the floors, walls, doors, and furniture. By using this tactic, you can ensure that people are able to better find their way around an area if they, for example, need to use the bathroom.
Avoiding too many distracting lights and sounds also allows you to focus on the sensory and memory-friendly routines you are planning. So, turning off a television and ensuring that any music is neither loud nor rambunctious can also help a great deal in creating a space conducive to the senior's well-being.
Early in the day, start with some simple steps:
Doing this can arouse a person's mind and support attention during natural energy peaks over the day.
Later, at midday, you can move on to activities that involve the individual in chores that help create sensory experiences. For example, folding and sorting clothing.
You may also want to involve sing-alongs in these activities to support their attention and keep them involved with you. Doing this can also allow you to keep track of them if you need to leave the room for any reason.
Then, in the afternoon and evening, consider moving on to more focused sense activation:
If other friends and family of the senior are involved in this process, consider creating small, repeatable "scripts" to help each of you remain consistent during such activities. Doing this is especially important for reducing the discomfort a senior feels from uncertainty.
We often try to watch out for early signs when interacting with a senior. These include things like pacing or frowning, which could indicate that someone has pent-up frustration and will soon attempt to find an outlet.
When things like this happen, we switch to calming inputs, quiet spaces, and one-to-one support, while ensuring the individual in question retains their dignity.
If a person is becoming frustrated with the specific task they are performing, we will try to switch them to something a little simpler, such as matching photos with similar themes. This way, we can give them repeated small successes and positive reinforcement more easily.
The difficulties seniors, especially those with dementia, face in even daily tasks are easy to underestimate. Ensure the tasks you offer to someone with dementia are achievable and can be completed in a short time.
Don't hand them a basket of laundry; instead, ask them to fold a couple of shirts and hang them up. These create smaller successes, which you can then repeat if necessary.
When you've finished a set of tasks, the individual might be a little frustrated, even with a relatively simple task. If so, offer them an enjoyable experience, such as a cup of tea, to increase their comfort.
Match sensory activities to a person's individual nature while remaining in a safe space, and, if possible, ask for their insights into their mood. If you choose to join us here at The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara, you can share this information during an onboarding interview to help staff learn how best to provide hands-on support in care.
If you're ready to see how we use these dementia engagement tools in our Memory Care efforts, schedule a tour at The Oak Cottage of Santa Barbara.
See how we combine such efforts with our Generations Memory Care, Vibrant Life offering, and sensory care programs to help individuals enjoy a personalized experience in our community.