Making music accessible to dementia sufferers – my maker project
My dad loves music but has enough dementia that he cannot operate normal music players. But he can use the music player that I just made for him, because it operates like a familiar old two-knob radio. I published the plans (see below), so you can do this too.
I was inspired to make a music box for my Dad by the documentary Alive Inside which shows that some people with dementia come alive when listening to their favorite music. So I tried this with Dad and some good headphones. There was sustained joy on his face – joy from the familiar music and joy from the fact that nothing else in the frustrating world mattered for a few minutes.
DQMusicBox is a maker project. Takes about two hours to build, once you have the parts & music. No soldering or special tools are required.
For more information, see the build plans.
Hi! I saw that movie also and would like to make your device. The link doesn’t seem to be working. Can you help me?
Hello Layla. Thank you for pointing out the broken link. I updated the posting with the correct link. You can also get the same instructions from github: https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=607157B747FA4BBF!99486&authkey=!ABQnL68DOTLDt5Y&ithint=file%2cpdf. Oh, and I recommend watching the 1 minute how to assemble video in the post above. Have fun, and feel free to write back with questions.