Chocolate Chip Cookies and Alzheimer’s: Making It Fun and Safe

Who can resist a chocolate chip cookie?  Well, maybe some can….but not on National Chocolate Chip Day!! Our Lady-Links group decided to try something new with our friend who is diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer’s dementia.  Together we made chocolate chip cookies to distribute among those who work  in our retirement community in celebration of National Chocolate Chip Day.

Here’s the result of the afternoon of baking.  Our friend is sitting with the basket of chocolate chip cookies, bagged and ready to distribute.  She participated in most of the process: the mixing of the ingredients, the scooping of the dough on the cookie sheets, decorating the baggies with stickers, putting two cookies in each bag, and giving them away to some very delighted members of our community.  I think her favorite part was sampling (mine too)!   She loves chocolate,  and we enjoyed seeing her so enthusiastic and having such fun!

As with any project that we do with her, there are modifications that need to be made and preparations that need to be done in advance of the visit.  Since we had not cooked with her before, we asked her husband for his insights and suggestions.  He let us know that the stove should be off limits for her because of previous episodes in which she would turn on the burners without his knowledge.  In fact, he had removed the burner knobs for safety reasons.    We made the decision not to involve our friend with putting the cookies in the oven or taking them out.  We did not want to encourage any interest in the stove/oven since that was a safety issue.  She could do every other step in the cookie-making process at the dining room table, so there was no need for her to even go into the kitchen.  We made sure she had plenty of things to do that did not involve being in the kitchen or using the stove/oven.

The preparation process prior to the visit involved making the stickers for the baggies that would hold the cookies.  I love my Creative Station sticker machine and can design my own stickers that way.  We made two for each baggie, one stating that it was the week of National Chocolate Chip Day and the other was something I downloaded from clip art saying “Have a Nice Day.”  Our friend loves to peel and place stickers, so I knew that this would be an enjoyable activity and would hold her interest while one of us slipped into the kitchen to put the cookies in the oven and take them out when they were done.

Just prior to the visit, I prepared three batches of cookie dough.  Two of them I completely mixed, and one I left unmixed for our friend to do.  It took a while for her to cream the butter into the dry ingredients and to add the egg and get it all mixed together, so I’m glad I had the other two batches of dough already done.  She instinctively knew how to cream the butter into the dry ingredients using a fork which led us to realize that she must have done this before and was linking to that experience.  As a result, we began to talk about when we were girls and would make cookies with our mothers.  She could add bits and pieces to the conversation, and we all had such a marvelous time of sharing our early cooking experiences, most of which were usually with our moms or in homemaking class.

We showed her how to use a cookie dough scoop to drop the dough on the baking sheet.  She did several scoops and then lost interest.  That’s when we brought out the baggies and stickers, and she had fun getting those ready while we finished scooping the dough.  That was a great way to keep her engaged in a meaningful activity and away from the stove.

 

We always had a Lady-Link in the kitchen doing the actual baking, but we never called attention to that.  We had plenty of fun around the dining table with our friend, so it was never an issue.

We filled over 40 baggies with our warm, delicious cookies and enjoyed  giving them away to the wonderful people who work in our retirement community.  Our friend was all smiles, especially when some of the recipients opened the bag and ate their cookies right away, describing them as “yummy” and “oh soooooo good.”   It was a great way to celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day and of course it was filled with all the love and laughter that naturally occurs during our Lady-Links visits.

Any suggestions for something we can “cook” at another Lady-Links visit that doesn’t require her to be involved with the stove/oven?