Mass Practice of Activities of Daily Living in Dementia (STOMP)

People with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias present with changes in how they think, move and emotionally respond to daily life situations. While type of dementia will dictate how severe certain symptoms are, all people with dementia will report a gradual change in how they function in daily life skills. Losing the ability to do daily life tasks, such as using a cell phone, balance a checkbook or get dressed in the morning signifies loss for both the person with dementia and their caregiver. Caregivers that assist with daily life tasks report more depression and anxiety, as well as a higher burden of care. People with dementia that lose the ability to perform daily tasks report more depression and decreased satisfaction with life. Despite gains in research, researchers are still missing important pieces that will improve rehabilitation interventions for improving daily life skills. In order to address the needs of people with dementia, an intervention called Skill-building through Task-Oriented Motor Practice (STOMP) was developed by an occupational therapist. Our team proposes that improvement in daily life skills is possible under certain circumstances. First, the daily life task a person is addressing in rehabilitation should be personally-meaningful and should also be the task practiced in therapy which is called "task-oriented training". For example, a person that is having trouble making a sandwich should practice making a sandwich. Second, the investigators propose that people with dementia need a lot of "correct practice" so that the brain has time to "rewire" how to do the task correctly. Therefore, when patients practice tasks using STOMP, investigators do not allow our participants to make errors and patients practice for long periods of time. Investigators also incorporate and provide new technology into training such as medication reminder alarms and photo phones which allow you to dial a number by choosing a loved one's picture. In this pilo