Memorization

[LADoug1]

Dementia is odd. My 102 grandmother had no short term memory but could sing songs she learned when she was a girl.

[+ Gar1eth]

As a university undergraduate, a thousand years ago, I had a Latin America History major and a Spanish minor. In those days foreign languages were taught by the grammar/translation method. That method required a great deal of grammar and vocabulary memorization. After graduation I joined the Peace Corps and during the twelve week training period Spanish was taught using the newer audio-lingual method which required virtually NO memorization. Upon arrival in our assigned country the students who had learned by the audio-lingual method were much quicker to jump into speaking Spanish. Those who learned by the grammar/translation method were more hesitant. After two years the audio-lingual learners where speaking and understanding with only slightly more competency than when they arrived. On the other hand those who had learned by the grammar/translation method where speaking with much more fluency and competency. Upon completion of our two years of service our Spanish Language competency was tested by a State Department Spanish Language specialists assisted by a local native speaker. We were all assigned a State Department competency score of one to five – one being minimal competency. ALL the audio-lingual learners scored between one and three and the grammar/translation learners scored between three and five. The point I am, rather laboriously, making here is that there is absolutely no way one is going to successfully learn a foreign language without a great deal of tedious memorization.

 

Interesting you bring this up. Prof John Rassias who helped develop the Peace Corp Language Training Methods just died in December. He was a professor at Dartmouth. I attended one of his intensive summer Spanish Courses for a week years ago. It was really interesting. Starting out at basically level 0, I couldn't learn that much in a week. We supposedly learned as much in that week as a full year of level 1 college Spanish. But I was struggling to remember by Day 4 or so. And then I never really had the opportunity to practice. While the course concentrated more on audiovisual learning and Spanish immersion, we did have a textbook and daily grammar lessons too. I think we were still not supposed to speak English during the grammar lessons too.

 

Dementia is odd. My 102 grandmother had no short term memory but could sing songs she learned when she was a girl.

 

I didn't think this topic was going to go in this direction but now that it has--

 

My father has Alzheimer's. I don't get to see him much. There's a good chance the next time I do he might not remember me, or he might remember me but not get my name. He's had Alzheimer's for about 9 years. But it's progressed rapidly over the last 2. He can't remember what he ate for a meal 10 minutes after eating it. But he still knows songs. He's great at sing-a-longs.

 

For those of you who are interested-there is a documentary on Netflix called Alive Inside. It's about using music therapy in dementia patients. My father has just started the program (as of this week). It's being conducted in a lot of nursing homes. The homes supply iPads loaded with music. As this clip from the video says, music can stimulate multiple areas of the brain.

 

 

Gman

[LADoug1]

Interesting you bring this up. Prof John Rassias who helped develop the Peace Corp Language Training Methods just died in December. He was a professor at Dartmouth. I attended one of his intensive summer Spanish Courses for a week years ago. It was really interesting. Starting out at basically level 0, I couldn't learn that much in a week. We supposedly learned as much in that week as a full year of level 1 college Spanish. But I was struggling to remember by Day 4 or so. And then I never really had the opportunity to practice. While the course concentrated more on audiovisual learning and Spanish immersion, we did have a textbook and daily grammar lessons too. I think we were still not supposed to speak English during the grammar lessons too.

 

 

 

I didn't think this topic was going to go in this direction but now that it has--

 

My father has Alzheimer's. I don't get to see him much. There's a good chance the next time I do he might not remember me, or he might remember me but not get my name. He's had Alzheimer's for about 9 years. But it's progressed rapidly over the last 2. He can't remember what he ate for a meal 10 minutes after eating it. But he still knows songs. He's great at sing-a-longs.

 

For those of you who are interested-there is a documentary on Netflix called Alive Inside. It's about using music therapy in dementia patients. My father has just started the program (as of this week). It's being conducted in a lot of nursing homes. The homes supply iPads loaded with music. As this clip from the video says, music can stimulate multiple areas of the brain.

 

 

Gman

Sorry for getting off topic. One of the last things I did with my grandmother before she passed away was sing one of her favorite songs with her. It was a sweet moment I'll never forget. Or hopefully never forget. Lol.

[+ Gar1eth]

I assume you meant "one major SCALE is divided into two tetrachords."

 

Whoops, thanks for catching that whopper of a mistake.

 

I'll admit that when I was in 7th grade, and my first piano teacher started taking about tetrachords during my 1st lesson @Charlie I probably wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. But it must have made an impresion as I still remember it 42 years later. In fact I remember it better than I remember her name. I think it was Celia or Cecilia Wong. I changed piano teachers the next year to Suzy (Blinderman) Carter.

 

Gman

[+ bigjoey]

Interesting you bring this up. Prof John Rassias who helped develop the Peace Corp Language Training Methods just died in December. He was a professor at Dartmouth. I attended one of his intensive summer Spanish Courses for a week years ago. It was really interesting. Starting out at basically level 0, I couldn't learn that much in a week. We supposedly learned as much in that week as a full year of level 1 college Spanish. But I was struggling to remember by Day 4 or so. And then I never really had the opportunity to practice. While the course concentrated more on audiovisual learning and Spanish immersion, we did have a textbook and daily grammar lessons too. I think we were still not supposed to speak English during the grammar lessons too.

 

 

 

I didn't think this topic was going to go in this direction but now that it has--

 

My father has Alzheimer's. I don't get to see him much. There's a good chance the next time I do he might not remember me, or he might remember me but not get my name. He's had Alzheimer's for about 9 years. But it's progressed rapidly over the last 2. He can't remember what he ate for a meal 10 minutes after eating it. But he still knows songs. He's great at sing-a-longs.

 

For those of you who are interested-there is a documentary on Netflix called Alive Inside. It's about using music therapy in dementia patients. My father has just started the program (as of this week). It's being conducted in a lot of nursing homes. The homes supply iPads loaded with music. As this clip from the video says, music can stimulate multiple areas of the brain.

 

 

Gman

 

 

At the senior facility where I volunteer, I have seen the power of music on Alzheimer's residents. It clearly reaches deep down inside their minds to revive old memories.

[bostonman]

I've only seen one person succumb to Alzheimer's - my former landlord. I still remember the month - early on before perhaps anyone knew he had the condition - when he and his wife thought I hadn't put a rent check in their mailbox (though I was quite confident that I did). I wound up cancelling the first check and writing a 2nd one. Odd incident, but ok, no major deal. Sometime later on, his wife came to apologize - seems she discovered a stack of mail in the basement, and my original check was in there. Clearly he had put it there but had no awareness of it.

 

I remember his descent being fairly rapid - and it was heartbreaking, because he had been a very vivacious, hard-working man (with his trade as a carpenter and handyman, he had essentially rebuilt and redesigned much of the 3-family house we lived in, and his pride was in that work), and he became a helpless shadow of himself. I really don't know how Maria - his wife - made it through all that.

[+ Gar1eth]

I've only seen one person succumb to Alzheimer's - my former landlord. I still remember the month - early on before perhaps anyone knew he had the condition - when he and his wife thought I hadn't put a rent check in their mailbox (though I was quite confident that I did). I wound up cancelling the first check and writing a 2nd one. Odd incident, but ok, no major deal. Sometime later on, his wife came to apologize - seems she discovered a stack of mail in the basement, and my original check was in there. Clearly he had put it there but had no awareness of it.

 

I remember his descent being fairly rapid - and it was heartbreaking, because he had been a very vivacious, hard-working man (with his trade as a carpenter and handyman, he had essentially rebuilt and redesigned much of the 3-family house we lived in, and his pride was in that work), and he became a helpless shadow of himself. I really don't know how Maria - his wife - made it through all that.

 

It's a horrible disease. My Dad started with mild symptoms about 8 years ago. Until this past year, he was forgetful, didn't say a lot. But he was satisfied watching TV and being with family. I didn't see him for about a year due to some unfortunate circumstances. Right before I saw him recently he had some issues with severe pain. But he couldn't describe what the pain was or where it was. It turned out it was kidney stones. He had an operation to remove them. Then he had complications after that. Since the operations, he's gone downhill much faster. He's in a rehab facility. But he doesn't understand why he needs to be there. My mother visits him for hours each day. It is killing her to see him like this. Plus she has almost no time to herself except when she leaves the rehab facility exhausted from dealing with my father.

 

On top of that even though this is rated as a good facility, the number of screw-ups they've done is incredible. From what I gather they all run on a minimal staffing model, so they can make as much profit as possible on what Medicare pays. They have one RN on duty for the entire facility. Each of the three wards has one LVN who has to do all the medical charting. Then the ones doing the actual care of the patients are the aides. They probably have about 6 of them per ward. Some of the aides are very good. And some are worthless. And while they are supposedly trained to deal with patients with dementia many of them don't act like it.

 

Then there is the physician group who covers this facility. The head physician will look straight at you when you have a problem. Tell you he'll do something. But he never carries a notepad. Three quarters of the time what he's told you he will do he never does. He's only there a couple of days a week. When he doesn't come, his group sends physician's assistants. But it seems like there's no continuity of care. It's like the people coming in each day aren't told by the previous person what's going on. My Dad is on a blood thinner. It's one of the ones where there actually is a difference between the name brand and generic. We told them at the start that my Dad is supposed to be on the name brand. A few weeks ago we find someone changed him without telling us. Or another example-my Dad has a heart valve. His blood is supposed to be thinner than what the lab says is normal. It's documented on his chart that he has the valve. Someone didn't read the chart, saw that his blood looked thinner than the accepted normal value for people without heart valves, and decreased his dose of blood thinner.

 

I think this has happened several times. I'm not going to be at all surprised if he gets a blood clot from them screwing up his medication. On top of that because they keep screwing up his medicine, he has to keep getting his blood drawn. I'm afraid he's going to get anemic if he isn't already there. I don't think 83 year old people are as good at making blood as younger people especially when his appetite isn't great, and he isn't eating or drinking very much.

 

Gman

[+ Charlie]

I was having dinner at a restaurant with an old friend one evening, when he started asking me if I had seen so-and-so lately, and I told him I didn't know that person. Then he began asking me about other people, and I realized that they were all old college classmates of his. But I didn't know any of them, because he was a dozen years older than I was, and we hadn't gone to the same school, yet he seemed convinced that I had been one of his classmates. Later, I told this story to his partner, who said that he knew something was wrong, because my friend had always been a dandy, dressing in impeccable (and expensive) taste, but he had started wearing mismatched clothing and didn't seem aware of it. Then he began telling stories that were a strange mix of truth and bizarre implausibility. A few months later, he disappeared, and the police found him on the side of a busy Florida highway, where he claimed he was waiting for a bus to take him to Philadelphia to visit his aunt (who had been dead for years).

 

The last time we visited him was in the Alzheimer's ward of a nursing home, where he had to be confined. Saying good-bye to him as we left was one of the saddest things I have ever done, because it was obvious that he was aware of what was happening to him. The last time I spoke to him was when I phoned him on his birthday, and we had a wonderful, perfectly lucid conversation. As soon as we finished, I called another close friend of his and told her to call him immediately, because he was having a good day. She did, and called me back afterwards to say it was heartbreaking, because he had no idea who she was. A few months later he was dead.

 

It's amazing how a thread like this starts out in one direction and eventually morphs into something very different.