Curiosity and Connection in Dementia

You can now create a CUSTOM CURIOSITY BOX by choosing the box and Timeless Presents tote, then filling them with your own selection of items to suit the person you know.

There are 33 items to choose from, including familiar objects, tactile items, things to hold or manipulate, opportunities for simple movement, and objects that may invite curiosity, recognition or conversation.

This is not a reminiscence box. The person does not need to remember a story, recognise an object or explain what it means. The items are there to be explored and enjoyed in the moment, in whatever way feels natural to them.

Each has been selected using the experience behind our DSDC-accredited Curiosity Box and our understanding of what can make an object approachable, interesting and enjoyable for someone living with dementia.

You know the person. You choose the contents.

A little update on our International Curiosity Box experiment.

After meeting people from around the world at the ADI conference in Lyon, we asked some of our new contacts to help us with something we simply can't do ourselves: look at our first selection of objects through their own cultural lens.

We've just received some lovely feedback from our contacts in Greece.

All of the objects were considered culturally appropriate, but one observation particularly interested us. The carved wooden animal has details that are more familiar within Chinese culture, yet this didn't prevent it from being considered suitable in Greece.

That's exactly the sort of thing we're hoping to explore.

What would go in your curiosity box to encourage nostalgia?

One of the ideas we're beginning to explore is how familiarity, recognition and connection might look in different cultures and communities around the world.

Our current Curiosity Box was designed in the UK, using everyday objects that many older people here would recognise from earlier in life. But what feels familiar in Kent may be very different from what feels familiar in Adelaide, Mumbai, Hong Kong or Toronto.

So we'd love to hear from you.

If you were creating a curiosity box for someone in your part of the world, what would you include?

It could be anything: