Leading a Painting Class for Seniors with Dementia

Sunday, January 5th 2025

By: Charlotte Hendrey

This morning, I led a fun painting class for the residents at Greenwood Assisted Living. I learned a lot from the last time I led a painting class here. So this time, I made some adaptations.

First of all, while I was handing out the materials, I made sure to give the guests specific instruction. For example, when I distributed water cups, I said not to drink the water because it was for paint. While I distributed the paint, I repeated multiple times NOT to eat the paint. The guests can get confused sometimes, because their dementia slows down their thinking. For example, Dan (middle image) thought that the red paint was ketchup, and so I made it very clear to him that it was not ketchup and that he cannot eat the red paint. When I lead activities, the safety of the guests is my priority.

I have written in past blog posts about how the guests need personalized guidance during activities, and that they need specific instruction. Some of the guests, like Susan and Jackie, wanted to free paint, so they used their imagination to create their own drawings. Jackie wrote "2025" in pink paint on her paper. Dan and Jack on the other hand needed some extra instruction, so I told them what to paint.

We started off by painting different shapes. I taught them how to paint circles and squares, then triangles. Each guest has their own unique set of capabilities, and I found that Dan was really good at painting triangles despite his visual impairment. So I told Dan to paint more triangles, which he was happy to do. Jack on the other hand was having trouble painting his own shapes, so to help him, I painted an outline of the shapes on his paper which he was able to color in.

While we were painting, I asked the guests to go around and say one nice thing out loud. I started off by complementing each one of their paintings. Jackie (left) said "I love all of you", which was very nice and made everybody smile.

I always like to find a minute for a teaching moment during activities I lead. So, while we were all using yellow paint, I asked everybody to say one thing that they can think of that is the color yellow. I started off by saying "lemon". At the end, Jackie said "The Sun". I responded by telling the group about how the Sun is a star. I am studying the life cycle of stars in Physics class at school, so I taught the residents about how the last stage in a star's life is called a "black dwarf", but no star in the Universe has become a black dwarf yet. Susan (in the left image wearing red) is always curious, and she asked me "Why is that?". I happily explained to her and the group how stars live so long. I taught them that stars are fueld from hydrogen that fuses into helium, and how the fusion process is very long and can take millions and billions of years. I also taught them that our star, The Sun, is in the Main Sequence phase.

Last time I saw Susan, she asked me about how everything is made. I told her about how the Industrial Revolution sparked mass production worldwide, and that next time I would explain it to her. So, today, I told her all about the Industrial Revolution. Susan really likes to learn new things, and she asks lots of questions. She was really interested in the Industrial Revolution, and asked me if thats how her paintbrush was made. I explained to her that without the Industrial Revolution, we probably wouldn't have most of the technology and inventions that we have today.

Towards the end, Dan started to pet Susan's dog named Cricket who is a tiny black chihuahua. This made Susan very angry and territorial, as she is extremely protective of Cricket. She began to yell at Dan, who was very confused as to why she was mad. I told Dan to please stop touching the dog, but he did not understand why he couldn't. Susan was growing very angry, and began to kick and threaten Dan. Luckily, I am good at breaking up disputes and calming down the guests. So I broke them apart and told Susan to calm down and take some deep breaths. Then, I told Dan to keep painting more triangles. They calmed down and I took the dog to my side of the table to keep away any more disputes.

At the end, we all cleaned up, and they admired their beautiful artwork. Painting was a fun activity for the residents that was both engaging and educational. Learning the names of the different shapes, colors, and fruit was a fun way to work their minds while doing something that they love to do!