7. How Reading Helps People Living with Dementia (Part 1)

Susan Ostrowski, Co-Creator/Owner Reading2Connect®
Sep 17
4 min read

Updated: Sep 28

Resources

Before diving into the benefits of reading for people with dementia, here are a few fabulous resources worthy of attention:

Libraries Transforming Communities!

The American Library Association and Association of Rural and Small Libraries are offering grants to libraries looking to expand patron outreach and build stronger community partnerships.

Nursing Homes Enriching Lives!

At no cost to Nursing Home, Reading2Connect will complete your CMP Grant application so that you may receive the Reading2Connect LTC Program for free. Inquire here.

People Affected by Dementia Taking Action!

There are two wonderful action groups for, and governed by, people living with dementia.

Dementia Action Alliance: forming friendships, exchanging ideas, and working to create positive community for people living with dementia.
National Council of Dementia Minds: fostering education and dialogue among people living with dementia, care partners, healthcare providers, researchers, and policy makers.
Young Dementia Network: an online community for everyone living with, working with or interested in young onset dementia.

Reading2Connect

Reading2Connect is working to ensure that people living with dementia receive the profound emotional, social, and cognitive benefits of reading throughout their lives. Take a look at some of our videos or join one of our live Info Sessions.

How Reading Helps People Living with Dementia

At its core, reading is a miracle of the mind. Our eyes scan written symbols, our brains decode them into words, and almost instantly, we are transported into thoughts, stories, and worlds that are a mix of our own experiences and what’s on the page.

The Universal Benefits of Reading for Pleasure

Research shows that leisurely reading offers a wide range of benefits. Here are three:

Reducing stress
Strengthening memory
Improving focus and attention

These are valuable advantages for anyone. But what might these benefits mean for people living with cognitive changes, whether due to age or dementia?

Three Benefits of Reading for People Living with Dementia

1) Reducing Stress

For someone experiencing mind changes, the strain of navigating their daily lives can be overwhelming.

An elderly man leisurely reading a book while leaning back in a chair.

For leisurely reading to truly ease daily stresses, two things matter:

1. The text must be clear and easy to read.

2. The content should be familiar enough to feel comfortable, but with some novelty to keep the mind gently engaged.

When this “just-right” balance is present, reading can be an act of quiet absorption. The gentle give-and-take between mind and text can be engaging enough to provide a reprieve from everyday difficulties, while smooth enough to calm the heart and quiet the mind.

2. Strengthening Memory

An open book with paper figures of a playful scene in a park emerging from the pages.

When books are thoughtfully designed for someone living with memory challenges, the act of reading becomes an intentional slowing down. This gentle pace creates room for remembering, reflecting, and reconnecting with who they are, what they’ve done, and how they feel. Past experiences, one’s personal stories, and self-identities gradually rise to the surface.

For those facing memory challenges, reading can act as a mirror…and a lifeline for remembering.

3. Improving Focus and Attention

Many people living with dementia report that their ability to focus has become compromised. Dementia-capable text can support and exercise one’s attention span.

Four books bound together with twine sit below a pair of round glasses and a small white budding flower.

Most text that is designed for readers with dementia incorporates multiple illustrations. Images stimulate visual processing and provide a natural pause from the effort of language processing. The reader will shift their focus--from words to picture and back to words--when it feels right to do so.

The combination of text and images helps stretch attention in a way that feels organic. By keeping the reader engaged with the topic through variety, the experience becomes both accessible and sustaining.

Definition of Reading?

There are MANY definitions for “reading.” We’ll close with my favorite:

Reading = Text Influencing Thought

As our brains age, reading - this miracle of the mind - becomes a greater gift than ever. Reading offers us a tool to live well with dementia and to slow down the progression of cognitive change. We’ll take a deeper look at these benefits in our next article.

Mainstreamed Literature Suggestions for Readers

Living with Cognitive Change

Author, Claire Keegan

While Claire Keegan doesn’t write specifically for readers with memory challenges, her work may be especially inviting for them. She often chooses the novella form. Her books tend to be physically small, un-intimidating, and inviting in appearance. They feel nice to hold.

Keegan’s Style

What makes her writing particularly accessible is her pared-back style. Keegan favors clear, unadorned language and short, simple sentences—a true gift for readers living with dementia. (As we’ve discussed in previous articles, conventional syntax is a huge barrier to reading for people living with dementia.)

Nonetheless, Keegan’s stories are far from simple; they carry a quiet, emotional weight. I feel that she “paints” her worlds with words and atmosphere, allowing readers to feel her stories as much as read them. I’m wondering if this artful, lyrical storytelling may work well for some people living with dementia.

Let me know in the comments, if you’d like.

Foster by Claire Keegan

One highly recommended book is Foster, a novella that inspired the award-winning film The Quiet Girl. Both the film and the book unfold slowly, with minimal dialogue and few characters. These elements may make them more digestible for people experiencing cognitive changes.

Pairing the two—reading the novella and watching the film—could be fun. Each medium will revisit the themes, reinforce the story, and deepen understanding.

(Note: One’s connection to a book is personal and individualistic; no book is for everyone.)

Novella: Foster

Written by Claire Keegan

Published by Grove Press 2022

Reviewed as “beautiful, sad, and eerie”