Butterfly Craft

Crafts are easy and fun to create, and can be a quite helpful activity in individuals with dementia:

• they exercise fine motor skills
• they allow for cognitive reenforcement 
• they practice working memory
• they do not require high levels of functioning
• they can raise emotions, such as joy that assist in cognitive strenghening

The current craft was conducted by an elderly lady in the latest stages of dementia. At first, she had trouble comprehending the activity and she accidentaly tore a paper apart, but after laughing about it, she proceeded with great will and effort to the task. In fact, after making a couple of butterflies, she should have gotten tired, but she asked for more, and the activity went on for longer than expected, something which made it even more fun for both the therapist and the patient!

Materials:

• wooden sticks for crafts
• thin paper in a variety of colours
• plastic eyes
• ribbons
• wet glue
• glitter
• markers

          

Procedure:

• fold the papers in two and draw a curve that will represent the wings (do that twice)
• cut the folded part of the paper, so as to create two curves that are connected
• glue the paper wings a little higher than the middle of the wooden stick
•  glue the plastic eyes on them
• draw a mouth with markers and decorate the wings with glitter
• for a more elaborate result, before gluing the wings on the stick wrap and glue a ribbon around it

 

 

   

In the end, the lady took one of the butterflies in her hand, lifted it high and said in a singing voice 'Look at it flying' as she shook the wings and they created a floating movement. We laughed, and the session ended with a great smile!

Literature: J. Creek, L. Lougher, 2008. Occupational Therapy and Mental Health, Athens, ΒΗΤΑ medical arts; Ν. Tsergas, 2014. Therapeutic Approaches Through Art, Αthens, Τopos.

Note: The current activity was conducted in an individual level in the sphere of creative work and cognitive reinforcement in a specific elderly care unit in Athens.