When words fail

Sporting glasses and a trim gray beard, David Knight looks very much like what he is – a retired geography professor. But pop him in a tux, stand him in front of a couple of kettle drums and he is an orchestra musician.

It’s an identity the 67-year-old Knight has worked hard to maintain since he was diagnosed six years ago with Early Stage Alzheimer’s disease.

The Elora, Ontario man performed timpani, also known as kettle drums, in his first concert when he was 18. Today, he plays in three orchestras and tutors budding percussionists.

“Initially, I thought I should drop out,” recalls Knight. ”I told the conductors about my diagnosis and they were very supportive, so I carried on. Music speaks to my soul, and performing it adds another special dimension.”

That’s not to say Knight hasn’t struggled. During rehearsals, conductors often stop and ask the musicians to resume playing from where they began. When Knight had to admit he couldn’t remember where that was, the conductors learned to become more precise.

“I’ve developed new ways of dealing with music,” he says. “Sometimes when I look at music, it’s like I’m seeing it for the first time even though I’ve seen it before. So I write notes on the music to remind myself how to play it. Music calls on so many parts of the brain; I think it’s been very important for me.”

Like any good academic, Knight has read the studies suggesting musical memory remains for those even in the advanced stages of dementia.

The award-winning work of Queen’s University professors Lola Cuddy and Jacalyn Duffin for example, is enlightening.

In 2005, they published in the journal Medical Hypotheses results of their study of an 84-year-old woman with Alzheimer’s disease who had severe problems in memory, language and cognition. Yet she could respond to familiar melodies by singing along and often continuing to sing the words after the music had stopped. She never responded to unfamiliar melodies, and responded to distorted melodies with surprise, laughter and sometimes even an exclamation of “Oh dear!”

In fact, the battery of music and memory tests she underwent showed her scores on par with those attained by others her age with similar musical backgrounds, but no dementia. While Cuddy says more research is needed before it’s known whether musical memory is spared in all cases of dementia, preliminary findings are encouraging.

“After we published, we got tons of emails from caregivers across the continent and they said, ‘I know what you’re talking about,’” says Cuddy, a professor of psychology who directs the music cognition lab at Queen’s. ”It may allow a path of communication when language communication may not be working,”

Perhaps just as significantly, the 84-year-old woman seemed to genuinely enjoy the music.

In fact, art in all its forms offers people with dementia the opportunity for socialization, self-expression and communication. That’s why so many support programs – including those offered by Alzheimer Societies in Cornwall, Windsor-Essex and Kingston – centre on the arts.

At the Alzheimer Society of Cornwall & District, participants in the art therapy program have given permission for their paintings to be displayed at local festivals.

Whereas festival-goers often give the Society’s information table a wide berth, the art intrigues them and they stop by to chat. “The art has acted as an incredible bridge to get people to speak about dementia in their family,” says executive director Shelley Vaillancourt.

She says clients will often use colour and shape to express feelings. Their work will also sometimes trigger memories and get them talking about events in their lives that even their family didn’t know about, giving loved ones fresh insight into who they are.

Vaillancourt recalls a client who created a piece of art around the word kindness. “He gave it to his wife and said thanks for your kindness. Some day I may not be able to tell you that, but I need you to know.”

At the Alzheimer Society of Windsor-Essex County, where Sylvia Reaume attends the arts and music program, her husband Rick sees the difference it makes. While Sylvia now talks very little and is easily confused, Rick says she returns from the Society’s art program refreshed.

“When she comes home, she feels better. She’ll say, ‘I had a good day.’ I see a smile on her face and she’ll laugh a little bit. I can see a difference,” says Rick. ”She goes there three days a week. My life line is the Alzheimer Society.”

At the Alzheimer Society of Kingston, the art class is “a chance for people to do an organized activity and chat and bring out associated memories,” says Cassandra Brown, who helps lead the program and also works as a research assistant in Professor Cuddy’s music cognition lab.

When she asked her group to bring in photos to serve as inspiration for art, one man brought an old shot of him and his family.

“It was from his time in Quebec when his family was young and he remembered how he and his kids used to play in the snow. He seemed pretty happy about drawing that connection,” says Brown.

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