Lisa Skinner demonstrates the Skill Care Sensory Maze Pad, a gel-filled finger maze that helps dementia caregivers calm agitated moments. The tactile activity redirects nervous energy and lowers alarm in the brain, giving caregivers time to address what's wrong while the person stays engaged with the maze's movable buttons and hand-eye coordination challenge.
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Of the Truth, Lies, and Alzheimer's Show, and I want to talk about how we can use sensory objects to help us de-escalate stressful moments that happen to us on a daily basis in dementia caregiving. So a sensory object like the one that I'm going to share with you today or other similar anxiety repetitive behavior support objects can and do help de-escalate stressful moments by giving a safe, engaging way to redirect that nervous energy that builds up in our loved ones if they are really getting themselves worked up about something. Those stressful moments that we encounter most of the time unexpectedly by giving them a safe, engaging way to redirect that nervous energy, reduce their internal distress, and create a predictable sensory input experience. This we know Helps lower the alarm level in their brains enough to make them much more receptive to us reassuring them and flipping the situation into a positive outcome. We now know, we have, you know, learned by trial and fire That it can be so much easier to transition from an escalating situation that's, you know, kind of on its way to getting out of control to a calmer interaction if there's an intermediate step. And these sensory objects are the intermediate step. And you can have them hold the object. While you are waiting for your person to use it before addressing what the topic or the situation at hand is. So the one I want to show you today is called the Skill Care Sensory Maze Pad. It is a tactical finger maze, and this particular one Comes in a house design. Let me pull my screen down so I can give you a better look at it. So, what this represents is a home. And what I love about this one, because this behavior is very, very common with dementia, just all of a sudden you might hear your loved one screaming out, I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home. Now, you know they already are home, but they believe that they are not. This is a really good tool for trying to prompt them into a conversation about what, what the home looks like, what it means to them, where it is, get some clues so you know exactly which home they're trying to get back to. By asking them, tell me more about your home. Putting this on a table, letting them take a look at it. You can have them point to a room and say, does your bedroom look anything like this one? Does your kitchen look anything like the kitchen that's on this mat? These buttons here, these little red buttons, they can move them around. So, kind of. Also acts as an activity, and you can just keep prompting them and asking them lots of questions about what home they're trying to get to, because really what it is that they're trying to accomplish is get to a place of familiarity where they feel safe and secure. But because we don't know which home they're referring to, using something like this can really help us identify. And then you can just kind of go with it from the home that you hopefully will identify. Like, it was at their childhood home, was it the home that they lived in when they were married and raising their kids? This is a perfect, perfect tool for that. So the, the dimensions of this are 9 by 12. And it is sealed in a leak-proof gel, so you don't have to worry about it leaking or spilling. And again, it's a house-shaped maze design. And not only can it be used as prompts for conversation starters, but it also is very good to Promote guided finger and hand movement through the gel with that little red button, and it does build hand-eye coordination, dexterity, and supports occupational goals for our loved ones or the people that we care for. There's multiple multifaceted uses. I love these sensory objects. And where you can find these, this particular one is manufactured by a company called Skill Care. That's S-K-I-L hyphen Care, C-A-R-E. You can find them at skillcare.com, but all their products are on Amazon. So easy peasy. And they have so many available. So you actually, based on your person's preferences, can find one that you think would be ideal to engage in a conversation, in an activity like this one can, can be used for, and to solve a problem that, you know, is kind of getting out of control and bring it back down to earth. Okay? So that's what I'm So that's all I wanted to share with you today. I will be back with other products to demonstrate, but I hope this kind of gives you some ideas of how these sensory objects can be used in our everyday journey into the dementia world to help make our lives and their lives so much easier. So thanks for watching. See you next time. Have a good rest of your day.
