Dementia and Repetition

Memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia can cause repetitive behaviors that irritate even the most patient family caregivers. While this behavior can’t be completely stopped, responding to your loved one with empathy and understanding are two ways to create a supportive environment that reduces repetition.

Take a look as our experts break down repetitive behaviors in people with dementia and learn how you can respond with positivity as a family caregiver.

Common Verbal Repetitions

Verbal repetition, also known as looping, is common in all stages of dementia, but can become more frequent as stages progress. Along with verbal repetition, you may notice your parent’s struggle to find the right words to express their emotions and their sentence structures become less complex as dementia increasingly affects the area of the brain responsible for language.
These are the most common ways people with dementia verbally repeat themselves:

Questions
This is the most common verbal repetition for those living with dementia. Although hearing the same questions repeated constantly is frustrating for family caregivers, anxiety and confusion commonly cause this behavior.

Stories
Many family caregivers hear their mom or dad tell repeated stories. They could be attempting to contribute to or start a conversation, have forgotten they recently told the story or simply trying to reconnect to highly significant memories in their past.

Phrases
As symptoms of dementia progress, your loved one’s language skill becomes increasingly limited. Your mom or dad may repeat simple phrases or repeat what someone else may have just said in order to communicate.

Sounds
A significant loss of language skills in the mid-to-late stages of dementia may lead your parent to make repetitive sounds or simply move their lips in an effort to speak familiar words.

Common Verbal Actions

Though verbal repetition is one of the more noticeable dementia symptoms, repetitive actions are also common in all stages. Repetitive actions can occur for many reasons and can be made worse by existing impulse disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Here are a few common actions you may notice in your mom or dad:

Continual tapping
Your loved one may start spontaneously tapping their fingers, hands or feet. While taps may agitate family caregivers, they’re often a method of self-comfort or self-stimulation. Many experts believe measuring tapping frequency and pattern are an effective way to monitor declining motor skills of someone with dementia.

Collecting or hoarding
This repetitive behavior is believed to have several sources. Your mom or dad might be retaining traits of their frugal personality or simply forgetting they ever had an item. People with dementia often believe misplaced items have been stolen. This can lead them to hide items they believe to be valuable, forgetting where they hid them and then accusing caregivers of theft.

Repeating tasks
Your parent may repeatedly perform the same task, like constantly making trips to the bathroom even though they don’t need to use it, folding and refolding the same clothes or repeating the same gesture in the late stages of dementia. This could be a way of returning to past routines or simply because they’re anxious about forgetting an important task.

How to Respond to Repetitive Behavior

Our seasoned and forward-thinking leadership team brings a wealth of knowledge to each of our communities. Each member of the Artis executive team has more than 20 years of experience in senior living and healthcare, and many team members have experienced Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia through their own families.

Here are tips on how to handle repetitive behavior from our experts at Artis Senior Living:

1. 1. Practice patience
   During moments of repetition, it’s normal for family caregivers to become frustrated and impatient. However, it’s important to do your best to treat each repetition as if it’s the first time, because your loved one with dementia may not remember repeating themselves and they aren’t intentionally trying to make things difficult. Try to remain calm, use a gentle voice and a soft touch. Responding with empathy and working to understand how they’re experiencing the world around them can help you make them feel safe and supported.
2. 2. Look for a reason
   Repetitive behavior is usually a sign your loved one has a physical or emotional need they can’t communicate, which is why it’s important to look for a reason behind their behavior. It may occur at certain times of the day, in a certain environment, if they’re in pain or discomfort, or when they have an upcoming event, like a doctor’s appointment. Try to focus on their emotions and not their behavior, because it can provide valuable insight on how to reduce repetition in the future.
3. 3. Answer their questions
   Whether you’ve answered their question one or 100 times, answer it just as you did the first time. Try to avoid long and complex explanations, because they can be frustrating to repeat and may add to your parent’s confusion. If your loved one has the ability to read, you can write the answer on paper and leave it in an area where they can easily return to check it.
4. 4. Introduce a distraction
   People with dementia can often get “stuck” in a loop of repetitive behavior. The best way to help them break out of the loop is to have a little fun with an engaging activity. You can use anything your mom or dad responds to, like admiring a bouquet of flowers, having a snack, or singing their favorite songs.
5. 5. Keep their mind stimulated
   Studies have shown that activities tailored to meet the interests, preferences and needs of a person with dementia can reduce repetitive behaviors, increase social interactions, improve the well-being of their caregivers and decrease agitation. Choose failure-free activities that match their ability. Great ways to spend time with your parents and engage their mind include making no-bake cookies or fruit salad, working in the garden, observing an aquarium or sorting coins.
6. 6. Take a break
   Being a family caregiver for a person with dementia is arduous work, because what works one day might not work another. It’s important to take time for yourself while you’re providing a high-quality life for your mom or dad. If you’re having trouble practicing patience with repetitive behaviors or are overwhelmed with your role as a family caregiver and taking a break doesn’t help, it might be time to consider moving your parent to Memory Care in a senior living community.

Discover the Power of Positive Partnerships at Artis Senior Living

Artis Senior Living is passionate about providing person-centered care at each of our 27 locations nationwide. We work with our residents, as well as their families, doctors and care partners, to create a customized plan of care designed for their unique needs. To learn how your loved one can benefit from The Artis Way contact our helpful associates online, call us at 484-392-5573 or sign up for a virtual event.