Play as Learning: How Familiar Skills Support Confidence and Connection 

August often carries a particular kind of energy. Students return to the classroom. Schedules adjust. We have a sense of getting back into rhythm, of returning to routines that feel familiar and grounding. 

For many families supporting a loved one living with dementia, this seasonal shift can raise the question: how do we help our loved one keep learning, growing, and engaging with the world? 

For people living with dementia, learning can evolve into familiar, well-practiced actions, and continue to offer the chance to share what they know with others. 

Why This Matters  

Families often look for ways to help a loved one stay engaged and involved. Familiar, repeated actions built over a lifetime – like folding laundry – hold onto their meaning long after new information becomes harder to retain. 

This matters because it opens a door. It allows learning and participation to continue, even as the shape of that participation changes. 

What We Mean by “Play as Learning” 

At Artis, August’s Power of Play theme explores a simple idea: learning can look like reconnecting with what someone already knows. 

This kind of learning draws on familiar skills and routines, practiced for decades, often so many times that they no longer require conscious thought. These actions reflect experience, allowing a person to express what they know. Participation can look like showing someone how it’s done, guiding another person through a step, or demonstrating a skill with confidence. 

This is supported by what researchers understand about memory. Procedural memory – the memory of how to do something, built through repetition over a lifetime – often remains more intact than episodic memory well into the course of dementia. The National Institute on Aging notes that people living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias may retain long-practiced skills and routines even as short-term memory and recall decline. 

What It Looks Like in Practice  

Consider something as ordinary as folding towels together. 

A caregiver sets out a basket of towels. A resident begins to fold, smoothing each one into a familiar shape, matching corners the way they have thousands of times before. The hands know what to do. 

Someone nearby might watch, then join in. A resident who folds with particular care might show a neighbor how they like to do it, offering guidance without being asked. The task is familiar, and it’s shared in the moment. 

At Artis, this idea comes to life each month through our Life Skills sessions, purposeful programming built around the everyday abilities residents have carried throughout their lives. These sessions draw on educational, occupational, domestic, and creative skills alike, giving each resident a way to reconnect with something they know well, whether that’s folding towels, organizing materials, reading aloud, or working with their hands on a favorite craft. 

Extending This Idea Throughout the Day  

This approach to learning is woven into daily life at Artis, not reserved for a single scheduled activity. It might appear at the table where residents fold and match napkins before a meal, or in a quiet moment when a resident helps set out folded linens for the day’s programming. 

These moments support purpose, confidence, and continued contribution. Each one gives a person the chance to say, in effect, “I know how to do this.” 

Research on meaningful activity in dementia care points to this same idea. The Alzheimer’s Association identifies engagement in purposeful, familiar activities as an important part of person-centered dementia care, noting that such activities can support mood and reinforce a continued sense of identity. The National Institute on Aging similarly highlights that activities drawing on lifelong skills and interests can help people living with dementia feel more like themselves. 

What Families Will Notice  

Shared activities feel more natural when they build on what someone already knows. Families may notice these moments are often small: a loved one showing a neighbor the right way to fold a towel, or offering a gentle correction when a familiar task is done a little differently. 

Look for the moments when your loved one shows, guides, or demonstrates something they already know. These are evidence that learning, understood in this broader sense, is still happening. 

Learning does not require new information to hold value. For people living with dementia, familiar routines and well-practiced skills offer their own form of growth, one built on experience. These familiar actions support identity, create a sense of purpose, and offer continued opportunities to share, contribute, and connect. 

At Artis Senior Living, we support continued learning and connection through: 

Learning, at any stage, is about staying connected to who we are. 

Sources: National Institute on Aging (NIA) Alzheimer’s Caregiving: Understanding Different Types of Dementia and Providing Meaningful Activities https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/alzheimers-caregiving 

Alzheimer’s Association Activities: Engaging People with Alzheimer’s and Dementia https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/daily-care/activities