Teaching Those in the Venerable Years - Mental Fitness For Older Adults

I feel caught inside our cultural myth that aging is really a failure, that if only I did so it right I could avoid old age, even avoid death. What a peculiar notion! We have some ideas that as we age we are no more sexy, vital, juicy. Sometimes when I walk into a room I feel as if I'm invisible, as well as worse, an outcast.-Lee Lipp

I'm well alert to the fact that I'm old. By the way, I used to say "old," but now when I'm asked in interviews, "How old are you?" I reply, "Well, I grew up in China in a time when age was venerated, so I am eighty six years venerable.-Huston Smith

There is that venerating older people grounds my teaching for older adults. It's an attitude of respect, attention, patience and love which makes my teaching rewarding and hopefully of some service. During the late 60's when it had been not hip to trust anyone over 30, I subtly discounted their exquisite value. Luckily, I soon learned to understand the wisdom and richness of the older generation while at exactly the same time having the ability to think for myself.

As a young boy, I found older adults to be fascinating, somewhat mysterious and, you should definitely playing sports or in school, I was very happy within their company. When I was in grammar school, I visited older neighbors who didn't appear to have younger people around them. 1 day I was walking past a fairly run-down, large home where "Mrs. Davenport" was pruning some bushes in her yard. She lived alone, and seemed to be a recluse. She also had the trustworthiness of being a mean shrew, and instilled fear in the youngsters who sometimes played pranks on her. But on this particular occasion, she asked me if I would help her lift some trimmings right into a wheelbarrow, which I did, while casting a suspicious eye on her, remembering a number of the children said she was a bona fide witch.

Apart from her unsmiling wizened face, I found nothing sinister about her. Her comments on plants, flowers, trees, squirrels, rabbits, muskrats, cats and dogs started to fascinate me. She never spoke about other folks except saying a group of "lousy boys" had thrown rocks at her dogs. After I finished, she invited me to take pleasure from freshly baked cookies. That began our friendship. I started visiting her, walking down the long driveway, knocking on her door and gaining entrance into magical conversations about topics not used to me. I viewed her photo albums and inspected her "favorite contraptions." Once I opened a painted music box, inlaid with white-spotted black and orange butterflies--I marveled because the box released a melody that brought such delight to Mrs. Davenport, her face noticeably softened.

Now I find myself revering my older students, as naturally, as happily as greeting my children when they come home from a trip. It is a joy for me to be with older adults, learning and teaching. I'm learning our brains are elastic, that we can "stretch" our minds in the same way we stretch our anatomies, even as we age. Neuroscientists call this ability of the brain to help keep itself fit, "brain plasticity." The course I teach, through adult school, in convalescent hospitals is called "Mental Fitness."

In classes with our venerable seniors, you can expect exercise (including simple Tai Chi), music and singing, arts-crafts, academics (history-geography; language arts; math life skills), puzzles, lively questions & answers about trivia, video documentaries & educational movies. We create an atmosphere where seniors can stay mentally active, at whatever level may be possible for so long as possible.

Different animals are brought into my class at the convalescent hospital-hospice. Needless to say a few of the clients don't wish to be close to any animal, yet many do and find it great fun and excitement, like having an instant "buddy." No judgments about being old. The furry ones make many clients feel relaxed, in what can be an alienating, colorless environment. A 93 year old resident is happily getting together with the fat kitty cat; so energizing for her. The animals brighten the classroom.

We discuss health and nutrition. We review studies-such as those by Dr. Andrew Weil-which recommend that seniors include a lot of antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, such as blueberries. And to include anti-inflammation vitamin C (within citrus fruits, beans, oatmeal, enriched pastas, peas, wheat germ, rice bran) and vitamin E (in spinach, sunflower seeds, wholegrains, wheat germ); and omega-3 fatty acids (in salmon, flax-seed oil, walnuts, supplements offering these fatty acids). Dr. Weil cites studies from scientists at the University of Irvine (with mice) that show DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) delays the development of protein "tangles" in brain cells and in addition reduces levels of beta amyloid. (Cf. The Journal of Neuroscience, April 18, 2007)

Research suggests that doing such activities as educational "trivia", learning a language or playing a musical instrument can help build reserve brain cells to fight failing mental ability. So we do lots of trivia and word games, both oral and written. We encourage stimulating the imagination, forming mental pictures to associate with information, utilizing the force of our attention and memory, still learning and "connecting," and "re-connecting."

Some convalescent homes and senior adult programs have computers, with such programs as "Posit Brain Fitness." Computers provide effective exercises to sharpen the minds of older adults. I did some of the sessions from a Brain Fitness Course from Posit Science where I and my fellow and sister seniors did different exercises to listen more attentively, to target and concentrate, to boost our capability to process information also to remember progressively larger levels of information. For instance, we distinguish varying sounds; we remember details from stories. We are experiencing how our brains can change when we are paying attention, how we can enhance the speed with which we process information and nudge our ability to communicate more effectively. I've done five different exercises: 1. "High or Low?" helps faster sound processing, so the brain can respond even to fast speech in conversation; 2. "REVEAL Apart" provides brain practice to distinguish similar sounds so it can better interpret the spoken word while storing clear memories; 3. "Match It!" helps the mind remember better, because the brain processes sounds with more clarity; 4. "Sound Replay" stimulates the mind to remember information in the order it's presented; 5. "Listen and Do" exercises the short-term memory, that is critical in most cognitive tasks related to thinking.

"Dakim's [m]  fit after 60  is another computer-based program which aids in slowing memory degeneration by "matching" and "word" games, answering questions. Multiple level activities can be found: for "high functioning," for "mild cognition impairment," and for those with "dementia." Seniors may review history or geography or watch clips from old movies where they're asked to remember setting, characters, and actions. A few of the hospitals and senior centers use the involving world of the Internet to look up information of interest, e-mail and chat.

Sadly, many of our students already have problems with the brain-clogging plaque (amyloid) and protein tangles of advanced Alzheimer's along with other dementia that greatly limit memory and cognition, and could manifest in behavioral abnormalities. But even Alzheimer's doesn't exclude meaningful educational and social interaction, even though it is on a simple level. We continue to reassure, interact, creatively stimulate, listen, be with, teach and study from. We've some fun and laughter together, even in this drastic-terribly sorrowful-situation of a slow, progressive diminishing of mental capacity.

Our students are often confused, disoriented, incoherent, alienated, angry, withdrawn, in slowly deteriorating conditions. Their words don't seem to express their thoughts. Some of our students appear "just out of it." We are alert to changing needs and must adapt, be responsive and understanding. It's messy sometimes; we accept all of it. These students are losing nerve cells that are connected with learning, judgment, memory. The chemical acetylcholine-which can be used by nerve cells to transmit messages-is decreasing dramatically.

Among my students greeted me every morning saying with a perplexed look: "I can't remember what I forgot to remember to tell you." Her daughter would visit her in class, but had to tell her each time that she was her daughter. She enjoyed going to class, especially singing and humming old songs; playing catch with a soft ball; hearing stories. However, there were times when she'd sit with a blank expression on her behalf face. J. Madeleine Nash writes: "Imagine the human brain as a house filled up with lights. Now imagine someone turning off the lights one at a time. That' what Alzheimer's disease does. It turns off the lights so that the flow of ideas, emotions and memories in one room to the next slows and finally ceases." (Time magazine, July 17, 2000) Though we can not stop this process inside our students, we do our far better accompany them, continuing to shine lights of caring in it.