We also observed improved task performance in patients across the entire spectrum from mild to severe dementia. There have been very few psychosocial therapy studies designed to improve the ability of dementia patients for performing tasks. Lam et al. (2010) reported that the ability to perform activities was improved by an individualized functional training programme.
However, this study and the few others that address the issue excluded patients with severe dementia. One of the key distinguishing features of our intervention is that the patients repeatedly performed a task that they are all very familiar with.
We hypothesized that performing occupational therapy activities while reminiscing about the activities awakens lingering procedural memory, and this accounts for the ability of patients to improve on performance of old familiar activities. We speculate that the two types of interventiondphysical activity combined with reminiscingdinteract synergistically to improve the ability of older people with mild to severe dementia in performing tasks. Diminished task performance is clearly a factor causing difficulty with activities of daily living. The fact that there are practically no interventions