When my father heard music in every stage of Alzheimer's, he gyrated his wrists to the music, sometimes "danced" with his shoulders, and always smiled. It was a pleasure to see music giving him such obvious pleasure. Most of Dad's favorites were on cassette tapes he himself had compiled, so throughout his nearly three years in the nursing home, our family searched dusty corners of our basements to find tape players that still worked. We had to replace several in Dad's room, but we wanted him to be able to enjoy his music. At one point, I made CDs of his tapes, but then the CD players we took to the nursing home broke, too. Fortunately, his nursing home had working players we could borrow if need be. And they also had one or two music programs a day we could wheel Dad to.
Here are two Caregiver.com articles about music's benefits for people with Alzheimer's.
Reaching People with Alzheimer's Through Music, by Barbara Jacobs, M.S.
The Healing Power of Music, by Steve Toll and Linda Bareham
