Add Laughter to
Alzheimer/Dementia Activities!!

Learn How to Engage Residents with Laughter--How "Buy-in" Happens

Looking for ways to bring more laughter to your community and include playful activities
for your residents to engage with? Where do you start? It turns out that laughing really is
easy for most humans : ) but creating a space and time where people feel safe enough to do it in a
group can be challenging and that’s before factoring in Altzheimer’s or Dementia.

LauraLou will draw from her Activities Assistant training to create a path through the attitudes and paperwork
to share ways to support the inclusion of playfulness and laughter into everyday life!

The workshop will focus on questions/challenges like:

How do you get “gatekeeper” buy-in? A “gatekeeper” is anyone who can influence a participant's attitude about the activity.
I’m not funny. Maybe you don’t feel funny or have been told that you aren’t, perhaps your sense of humor is just different than those you interact with.
Participants with deadpan expression, no facial movement when engaging in conversation.
Participant “buy in” is not apparent.
Participants are shy/easily embarrassed.
Participant taking over session “telling jokes” or “trying to be funny”.
No designated space for sessions. Interruptions and lack of privacy make it difficult for people to open up.