Would y’all like me to give you some little “tests” that you can give your older relative to see if they might have dementia?

One of the signs I noticed was when my Dad no longer said the prayer at big family gatherings. He had ALWAYS said the mealtime prayer at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and other special occasions. When my Mother took over for him, we should have realized it was serious.

Make up a game where you see how many of something you can name. Ask your relative how many animals they can name, or how many different types of birds they can name, or how many different creatures in the ocean they can name, whatever. If they can name just 2 or 3, that’s bad.

Have your old relative draw a clock face from memory, without looking at a watch or clock. They should be able to label the numbers & draw the hands to show a specific time.

Don’t make it seem like a test or they might refuse to participate.

Draw a cube and have them try to copy it from memory.

If they have a problem with that, see if they can copy it while looking at your cube.

See what elements of the current date they know without looking at a calendar, watch, or cell phone. Do they know the day of the week? The month, day, year? Do they know the season?

Write numbers 1 through 10, NOT in order, spread out on the page. Have your relative start at 1 and draw a straight line to 2 then 3, & so forth until they get to 10.

Then, on another page, do the same with letters A through J. Have them draw lines connecting A to B to C etc.

On a new sheet of paper, put the numbers 1 through 5 and letters A through E. Spread them out randomly on the page, not grouped, not in order. Have relative start at 1, then draw line to A, then to 2, then to B, etc, alternating between numbers & letters. Very HARD with dementia!

Observe your relative(s) doing routine things like paying bills. Did one spouse used to perform a task, but more recently another one took over? Or both used to do something but now only one of them does it? Why the change?

How do they spend their days? I discovered that my mother was the only one able to deal with bills. If everything was normal, she could write checks & get payments in the mail just fine. But if there was anything unusual, she was bewildered for DAYS.

If they are in charge of their own medication, which they probably are if they have not yet been diagnosed with dementia, do a spot check. Do they use a weekly pill organizer? Have they missed any doses in the current week? Are the future days’ medications filled correctly?

I might think of some other things. But let me just tell you this...

Do NOT assume that a primary care doctor will diagnose your elderly relative with dementia. They WILL NOT. In fact, they might even laugh at the suggestion. My mother’s old doctor actually laughed in my face.

Both of my parents have dementia, but they have different symptoms. My Dad is better at some stuff & my Mom is better at other stuff. Between the two of them, they were somehow managing to muddle through. Not one doctor diagnosed their dementia until we took them to a specialist.