Intervening with everyday memory problems in dementia of Alzheimer type: An errorless learning approach

Dementia of Alzheimer Type (DAT) is increasingly detected at an earlier sta ge of the disorder, when interventions to assist with everyday memory diffi culties might be most valuable. Some learning is possible in DAT and a numb er of factors have been identified which may facilitate performance, althou gh applications to everyday memory problems have been limited. The concept of errorless learning has not previously been directly examined in relation to DAT, but might provide a useful additional strategy. In the present stu dy, 6 participants with early stage DAT (MMSE scores 21 - 26) received indi vidually tailored interventions, based on errorless learning principles and targeted at a specific everyday memory problem. Five of the participants s howed significant improvement on the target measures, and maintained this i mprovement up to 6 months later. The results suggest that it is feasible to intervene with everyday memory problems in the early stages of DAT and tha t errorless learning may be useful in addressing these problems.