full transcript
From the Ted Talk by Alanna Shaikh: How I'm preparing to get Alzheimer's
Unscramble the Blue Letters
bsead on what I've learned from taking care of my ftaher, and researching what it's like to live with dementia, I'm focusing on three things in my preparation: I'm cgnahnig what I do for fun, I'm wiornkg to build my physical strength, and — this is the hard one — I'm trying to become a better psoern. Let's srtat with the hobbies. When you get dementia, it gets harder and hrader to enjoy yourself. You can't sit and have long tkals with your old friends, because you don't know who they are. It's confusing to watch television, and often very frightening. And reading is just about impossible. When you care for someone with dntieema, and you get training, they tiarn you to engage them in activities that are familiar, hands-on, open-ended. With my dad, that turned out to be letting him fill out forms. He was a college professor at a sttae school; he knows what paperwork looks like. He'll sign his name on every line, he'll check all the boxes, he'll put numbers in where he thinks there should be numbers. But it got me tnhnikig, what would my caregivers do with me? I'm my father's daughter. I read, I write, I think about global health a lot. Would they give me academic journals so I could scribble in the margins? Would they give me charts and ghpars that I could color? So I've been trying to learn to do things that are hands-on. I've always liked to draw, so I'm doing it more even though I'm really very bad at it. I am learning some basic origami. I can make a really great box. (Laughter) And I'm teaching myself to knit, which so far I can knit a blob.
Open Cloze
_____ on what I've learned from taking care of my ______, and researching what it's like to live with dementia, I'm focusing on three things in my preparation: I'm ________ what I do for fun, I'm _______ to build my physical strength, and — this is the hard one — I'm trying to become a better ______. Let's _____ with the hobbies. When you get dementia, it gets harder and ______ to enjoy yourself. You can't sit and have long _____ with your old friends, because you don't know who they are. It's confusing to watch television, and often very frightening. And reading is just about impossible. When you care for someone with ________, and you get training, they _____ you to engage them in activities that are familiar, hands-on, open-ended. With my dad, that turned out to be letting him fill out forms. He was a college professor at a _____ school; he knows what paperwork looks like. He'll sign his name on every line, he'll check all the boxes, he'll put numbers in where he thinks there should be numbers. But it got me ________, what would my caregivers do with me? I'm my father's daughter. I read, I write, I think about global health a lot. Would they give me academic journals so I could scribble in the margins? Would they give me charts and ______ that I could color? So I've been trying to learn to do things that are hands-on. I've always liked to draw, so I'm doing it more even though I'm really very bad at it. I am learning some basic origami. I can make a really great box. (Laughter) And I'm teaching myself to knit, which so far I can knit a blob.
Solution
- dementia
- thinking
- working
- based
- harder
- talks
- graphs
- train
- person
- changing
- father
- state
- start
Original Text
Based on what I've learned from taking care of my father, and researching what it's like to live with dementia, I'm focusing on three things in my preparation: I'm changing what I do for fun, I'm working to build my physical strength, and — this is the hard one — I'm trying to become a better person. Let's start with the hobbies. When you get dementia, it gets harder and harder to enjoy yourself. You can't sit and have long talks with your old friends, because you don't know who they are. It's confusing to watch television, and often very frightening. And reading is just about impossible. When you care for someone with dementia, and you get training, they train you to engage them in activities that are familiar, hands-on, open-ended. With my dad, that turned out to be letting him fill out forms. He was a college professor at a state school; he knows what paperwork looks like. He'll sign his name on every line, he'll check all the boxes, he'll put numbers in where he thinks there should be numbers. But it got me thinking, what would my caregivers do with me? I'm my father's daughter. I read, I write, I think about global health a lot. Would they give me academic journals so I could scribble in the margins? Would they give me charts and graphs that I could color? So I've been trying to learn to do things that are hands-on. I've always liked to draw, so I'm doing it more even though I'm really very bad at it. I am learning some basic origami. I can make a really great box. (Laughter) And I'm teaching myself to knit, which so far I can knit a blob.
Frequently Occurring Word Combinations
ngrams of length 2
| collocation |
frequency |
| college professor |
2 |
Important Words
- academic
- activities
- bad
- based
- basic
- blob
- box
- boxes
- build
- care
- caregivers
- changing
- charts
- check
- college
- color
- confusing
- dad
- daughter
- dementia
- draw
- engage
- enjoy
- familiar
- father
- fill
- focusing
- forms
- friends
- frightening
- fun
- give
- global
- graphs
- great
- hard
- harder
- health
- hobbies
- impossible
- journals
- knit
- laughter
- learn
- learned
- learning
- letting
- line
- live
- long
- lot
- margins
- numbers
- origami
- paperwork
- person
- physical
- professor
- put
- read
- reading
- researching
- scribble
- sign
- sit
- start
- state
- strength
- talks
- teaching
- television
- thinking
- thinks
- train
- training
- turned
- watch
- working
- write