People with Dementia Positioning Themselves as Learners

Recent studies have demonstrated that people living with dementia, contrary to common believes, are capable of novel learning without structured interventions. Opportunities for learning throughout an individual's lifespan have been acknowledged as important factors in facilitating social participation and promoting wellbeing. However, little is still known about the situated practices used in the learning process for people living with dementia. This study aims to explore how people living with dementia in Swedish residential care facilities position, perceive, and assert, themselves as learners in a novel activity. The study is based on video recordings of eight people living with dementia, who for the first time use tablet computers as a social activity on a one-to-one basis with their formal caregivers. Through interaction analysis, we show how the participants living with dementia use the engagement displays of "requests," "accounts," "formulations" and "metacomments" to make their active undertaking in the ongoing activity public to their communication partner. Our findings suggest that people living with dementia might still perceive themselves as individuals capable of novel learning and that they are active and engaged agents in this process.