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Mom has dementia and lives in snf, but is still highly functioning and is bored and lonely. Tries to read but can’t get past first page. I️ thought maybe an audio book option, but don’t know what is the easiest/best way to provide that she will be able to operate. Also if a book is downloaded wifi is not necessary is that correct?

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libfuller: In lieu of listening to an audio book, perhaps the activities director of the facility can offer suggestions on engaging your mother for socialization as she is still a high functioning patient.
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My aunt is blind, developmentally disabled and now has dementia. She has always read talking books. We get them from the national Library of congress for the state we live in, she has in KS, IL, CA and WA states. They send a machine for the tapes and then send tapes out to you. Every other month there is a catalog sent out to you. You can go through the catalog and pick books. You can also sign up for monthly magazines. My Aunts preferences for books has changed over the years but we are always able to find plenty for her to “read”. https://www.loc.gov/nls/
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Perhaps go a different direction and put a Zoo series on the TV.........nothing to read, just pure relaxation and charming animals. These helped me cope with the Covid pandemic and the hostile stories on the news..........I sought out something interesting and beautiful and found it at the Zoos around the world.
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Cashew Nov 2022
I found some nature walks on Amazon prime that are like a hike up a mountain or such. My Mom enjoys watching those. She wouldn't be able to handle a book anymore. I will also play some music for her and get her scooting in her wheelchair.
I introduced her to Postmodern Jukebox. lol
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I live in Tennessee, where we have the Tennessee Reads program. If you have a library card, you just use its unique number in the Libby app on a phone or tablet and you have access to any book in the whole state library system, many of which are audio books, which the Libby app plays beautifully. It's all free! This program was a brain child of Dolly Parton, and I love it!!! Super easy to use too!

Maybe your state has something similar??

Blessings for our Lord Jesus!
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I live in Tennessee, where we have the Tennessee Reads program. If you have a library card, you just use its unique number in the Libby app on a phone or tablet and you have access to any book in the whole state library system, many of which are audio books, which the Libby app plays beautifully. It's all free! This program was a brain child of Dolly Parton, and I love it!!! Super easy to use too!
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I’d try an Old Time Radio CD. Maybe Jack Benny or Fibber McGee and Molly..

Short plots, running gags, something she knew from childhood?

A zillion are available free online.
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Try Readers Digest. Short stories. Humor. It worked for my husband.
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I bought cassette tape of garrison keiller Lake Wobegon Days for my grandmother when she in al with dementia years ago.. now my father has early stage dimentia and he really hates listening to things. Don't know why cause I like to close my eyes listen to podcasts.. he really doesn't -likes watching news on TV..
Keiller is a story teller with a calming drawl as he tells about his boyhood days growing up in MN where all the kids are above average... U can listen to some of his podcast on utube... See if it mom likes. Before buying
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Ariadnee Nov 2022
I listen to old radio shows. At one point will suggest them to my husband. Check the web, there are a lot of options to choose from. Easy to use, although internet connection is required. Most episodes last about 25 minutes. Silly, fun and easy to enjoy.
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My Mother has macular and dementia. She is 91. She lives in Tennessee. They have a wonderful program in our state. She gets books and magazines. I ask her about the book she is listening to and like to discuss them with her. She was provided a player and you insert a thumb drive device into it. It is way for when to use. You return them and it is free. Here is the information for Tennessee. Whatever state you live in might have a program and if not call this group and see if they can assist with information for another state. They are so helpful.

Tennessee Library for Accessible Books and Media
Tennessee State Library & Archives
Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett
1001 Rep John Lewis Way North
Nashville TN 37219
Phone:  (615) 741-3915 or (800) 342-3308, toll-free
Fax:  (615) 532-8856
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my mom w dementia is/was also avid reader (our dinner was always burnt as she was absorbed in some plot - we thought that dinner was supposed to be like that). I found a couple books & special edition magazines w single picture & half page text - so 4 little gems per 2 pages. She loves these! I also got her an occasional travel book - one w lots of pictures & short descriptions of places - she loved to travel. Has to be about places she went to as child or young adult.
for her its the length of the story. Max 1 paragraph.
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My mom cannot see to read, but has never had the patience to read or listen to a book unless it was something she was REALLY interested. I used to find a few magazines that were recorded for the blind, but even then she did not want to listen to the "whole magazine" when she was only interested in one or two articles. The ability to concentrate and follow a story would be even worse for someone with dementia (barely, ha!)

My mother has an Alexa which enables her to listen to a few things and ask questions, such as time, get reminders, etc. Of course, Internet access would be necessary. I do download and record some audio articles from the Internet for her to listen to, but depending on the person and level of functioning, someone would have to have a very simple device use. I have downloaded audio articles on the Internet to a CD, and also to an SD card to use in an MP3 player, but my mom cannot see to load the SD card, I have to load it for her. And it was very hard finding a simple mp3 player that had tactile buttons. As far as finding audio articles to listen to, I like the jw.org website. Although it is a religious website, it has a wealth of audio articles on a number of subjects, many of which are very brief and always positive. Searching the Internet I find an occasional podcast worth recording, but most are too long to hold mom's interest.
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Can your mother sew or knit or do simple craft-type tasks? Is there a church or a Cancer support or community group that needs people to help make "cancer hats" or aprons or clothing items for charity projects? Sometimes these items are pre-cut and in little kits and volunteers are needed to put them together.
It would give your mother a purposeful task and would be a help to the project.
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My Mom is in a similar state. High functioning in that she can dress, bath, get around, hold a trivial conversation, etc. But her short term memory is very bad and she can't remember what happened a few minutes ago so following any kind of book or story is very difficult or impossible. She just can't remember what happened in the last scene, much less the last chapter or 2-3 chapters ago. So the story falls apart and doesn't make sense.

What does work are TV game shows! I really don't like them, but discovered that Mom can follow along with "the price is right" or most other trivial game shows. Not jeopardy or anything like that, but the simple ones where they are doing something "in the moment" and not having to remember anything that happened a bit ago. And the lively, colorful nature of these shows is also a good thing. Nothing scary or concerning, it's all light and cheery.
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Ariadnee Nov 2022
The Price is Right is great! My husband loves to watch it. Will have a few episodes taped, so they can be viewed any time. We play along, he'd never seeen it before and has had a lot of fun watching it. He's actually very good at guessing prices.
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Look in the young adult section, books are generally shorter and sex and violence is less likely to be part of the plot.
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i echo others here who say your mom is not likely to be able to follow along with an audiobook. my mom can't really even follow along with tv any more, she will react to some scenes but is not aware of the overall plot of the show. so we keep it light with simple comedies like king of queens that are lighthearted and she chuckles now and then. music is the only thing that does get to her--she still knows the words to all her favorite songs from the 50s and 60s and it makes her happy to listen.
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lealonnie1 Oct 2022
My mother enjoyed music too and was still able to sing along with a lot of the old songs....long term memory isn't always lost w advancing dementia. We played big band era music in her room 24/7 the last week of her life and hope she was able to draw comfort from it
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I see a lot of debate about whether you should get her audiobooks at all and I figure that's up to you to decide. I recommend James Herriot's audio books (he wrote All Creatures Great and Small) because they're short, calming stories. No major drama or long plot lines to keep track of.
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My mom enjoyed those word puzzles until I noticed she was looking in the back at the answer keys. She lost the brain connections. If I took her to the lobby to read the papers, she looked convincingly like she was reading, but she was not.

Your next bet is listening to music. My mom went backwards in time and she knew words to many songs of the 1930s and 40s. If she has those cable radio channels, go way back to the era of her teens and 20s.

If you still want to use library books, Hoopla downloads to a phone but runs off of the data plan if you leave wifi. Overdrive can be uploaded to a few compatable MP3s such as Sansa clip for $30. It first needs to be downloaded to a PC with the Overdrive app. The downside of audio books is you have to remember your place if you forget to shut it off and have to go back. How does she do with technology

Your other option is to do what many MCs do... go with classic movies. If she really loved books, choose films that she might have read from such as the Harry Potter series
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Geaton777 Oct 2022
Yes, classic movies are great, however in our experience with my 100-yr old Aunt with mod/adv dementia, anything remotely scary, violent, suspenseful or too complicated a story just resulted in her getting worked up and into a bad mood, complete with yelling and paranoia. Even the Nazi chase scene in Sound of Music was too much for her. She does fine with very light classic musicals (Singing in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis, Hello Dolly, etc) or Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks movies like Ice Age, Up, Moana, Secret Life of Pets, etc. We put the closed captioning on and she reads the entire movie.
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Why can't your mother get past the first page of a book? What you consider 'highly functioning' may not BE highly functioning, in reality. My mother was chronically bored when she had moderate and advanced dementia precisely b/c she was unable to DO much of anything anymore, like follow a story line on TV or read a novel. And then she reached the point of not being able to read her favorite People magazine anymore. The thought of her trying to operate a Kindle or ANYTHING electronic like that or computer-ish would be outrageous to me, considering she would try to operate the TV set with her telephone. One of the first things to go is an elder's ability to operate electronics or any type of gadget, including TV sets, phones, computers, etc.

If you think she's capable of operating a Kindle, then no, wifi is not required to read a book on that device.

If it were me, I'd get the activity director involved in getting mom out of her room and into the activities going on in the SNF. Get her acquainted with the other residents who are at the same level of dementia she's at, so they'll be able to interact and talk together, eat meals, etc. That will help her loneliness better than any book ever could. That's what helped my mother tremendously; the socialization she had in her Memory Care ALF with the other residents. Even the ones she didn't like and complained about.........that gave her something to DO and others to focus her limited attention span on. And the arts & crafts they did together in the activity room really kept her amused.

Best of luck.
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JoAnn29 Oct 2022
You described my Mom who had been an avid reader. My nephew came home one day from work to find Mom crying because she had forgotten how to answer her cordless phone. Thats why it surprises me when Members say a parent with advancing Dementia can still use a cell.
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Honestly, the problem isn't the book vs. audio issue -- it's the dementia issue. She can't follow the narrative any longer.
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I have trouble with audio books, my mind starts to wander. For a person suffering from Dementia it takes them awhile to be able to process what is being said. Thats why you use very few words when talking to them. I really don't see her being able to follow along.
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Does your mom like any magazines. Readers Digest comes in large print.
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How will they remember how to open app or use the tablet? The staff maybe needs to be asked to help with this. Also it's something that can easily be stolen from her.

Maybe best to give her books with large pictures and just a little text, maybe not a story to follow. My 100-year old Aunt loves cat and bird books with 1 large pic per page that gives info about the animal. She reads them over and over.

Maybe just a tv in her room set on the Animal Planet channel for the aids to turn on for her.

An audiobook would require wifi to download the book initially but after that it's on the device and shouldn't be a problem to use by someone who can remember how.

My 93-yr old mother just transitioned to my iPad and plays card games on it a lot. She doesn't have cognitive or memory impairment and was using a different Android tablet for many years prior to switching.

My 88-yr old MIL in LTC has significant memory loss and has started "reading" large print romance novels. We're not sure she gets past the first page. Picture books are the best. Or a cd player for music, but again, someone else will need to turn it on for her.
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dawnjohn22 Nov 2022
Wow! What a great idea! I have an iPad but I never used it for games and therefore it never occurred to me that it can be used as a tool for dementia or actually brain stimulation and a boredom buster.

My roommate has cognitive issues and is literally driving me crazy as he shadows me with repetitive conversation. It wouldn’t be such a problem if I didn’t have my own health issues.

I will introduce him to my iPad today. Thanks again, such an easy fix that slipped my slipping mind.

Sending ❤️ love.
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I use audible.com plus a hardcover of the book from the library where my husband can follow along. He loves it.
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