Using visual aids to support communication

Sometimes you may need to support a person with dementia to participate in events and social situations. This might include a GP appointment, a family event, an excursion or an opportunity to engage in a hobby.

We know that people with dementia often have challenges in both understanding information provided to them and/or retaining the information for long enough for it to be meaningful. 

When it’s time to go out, a range of situations and emotions can arise. These might include the person with dementia refusing to go because they genuinely believe they were never told about the event. They may have anxiety about where they are going. Confusion, disorientation, agitation, distress, tearfulness, a sense of unease, and many more emotions can all emerge.

These situations can also provoke a range of emotions for carers including stress, worry, fear, frustration, and anger.

Visual information is often better understood than verbal information. It can be helpful to provide:

• Information in bitesize chunks
• Visual reminders
• Visual formats
• Step by step instructions

Storyboards are a visual aid which can help support a person to understand, remember and engage with a visit, event or routine either inside or outside the home.

They can capture key elements and stages of an event with images which can help the person to understand the event and will help to describe the actions at each stage.

By creating a storyboard, it can help you to identify all the stages and can help you think about what situations might arise, and can support a person with dementia to express areas which give them concerns.

Often storyboards can then be adapted or used again for other events.

Generally, a story board can look how you want it to look, but they should not have too much information on a page as this can be overwhelming.

You may wish to create a storyboard on one page, or a storybook where you flick from one page to the next, or even a storymat where you can add, remove or drop things down into a ‘we are here now’ section.

Think about the task e.g. Going to the doctors, and then think of all the steps which will happen (this is unique to your own routine)

For example:

• We need to get up and out of bed at 8am
• We will go downstairs
• We will have breakfast
• We will go to the bathroom and have a wash
• Clean teeth
• Get dressed
• Go to the car
• Travel to the surgery
• Wait in the waiting room
• Go in to see the doctor and talk to the doctor
• Say goodbye and leave the surgery
• Get back in the car and drive home
• Arrive home
• Sit down in the kitchen for a cup of tea and a cake

There are resources which you can purchase to help with this, but a good tip is to also take photos within your own home and when you are out and about with the people and places you visit. This will help you to tell the story with as many familiar pictures as possible.

For more tips on communicating and to find out what other carers have done to support their communication, you could join one of our online practical support groups.