How Can You Use Art to Help Your Aging Adult?
As a family caregiver, you’re probably always looking for new ways to help your senior to stay active and engaged. Adding art therapy to her daily and weekly routine can help to accomplish those goals for you and give your senior a lot of fun, too. There are many ways for you to introduce this into their daily routines. See below for some tips…
Leave the Activities Fairly Unstructured
Unless your senior thrives on fully structured activities, you might want to adopt a looser attitude with art projects. This gives your aging adult the opportunity to use whatever you’ve collected to create a piece of art that truly expresses how she’s feeling and what she wants to say.
Branch out and Try Different Media
If you’re new to art as well, you might not realize how many different options and tools there are out there. Some of the easiest forms of art involve using markers, crayons, and even finger paints to splash colors down on plain paper. You can add canvases, acrylic paints, modeling clay, and any number of other media to the adventure. Try all sorts of options until you find the ones your senior loves the most.
Benefits of Art Therapy
Many people think that art is just about making pretty pictures or designs, but it can do so much more than that. Art helps to stimulate your senior’s brain and keep it engaged. Making art also helps with motor skills, both gross and fine. Finally, creating artwork gives your aging adult a way to put feelings and thoughts down on paper in a different way than with words.
Observing Art Can Be Just as Powerful
But what if your senior feels she can’t make art or she’s not able to find a method she likes? Observing art can be just as powerful for your senior. Try visiting art galleries or watching documentaries about art and artists together. You might find that these activities help to open up your senior’s perspective and teach you even more about her.
Make art a regular part of your senior’s daily or weekly life. If she really enjoys expressing herself through art, she may want to experience it as much as possible. An elderly care provider can help you to accomplish many of these projects, and take your senior to many places.
If you or an aging loved-one are considering hiring elderly care in Eufaula, AL, please contact the caring staff at Wiregrass HomeCare today. Call us at 334-539-5900.