In the past year, it has become nearly impossible to have a normal conversation due to mom's memory loss.
When I visited yesterday, I brought a photo album from when I was an infant and young child. She didn't know who I was or many of the other people, but once I told her, she started to "remember". She always knew who the cats were even though they've been gone many years.
I have no hope of having a normal conversation again but I imagine bringing old pictures or albums will work better than anything else at this point and she seemed happy to look at them.
What do you do?
When he gets depressed saying he's stupid because he can't do or remember something, I tell him, he can't help it. We both agree it's the dementia and neither like it. So, by talking about it, makes the problem come more into perspective.
I, also, use hand signals with my words to better communicate with him. Like the signals we teach dogs. It's helped me a lot in the communication department.