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.

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