'Connection Over Correction' Changes How You Care for Someone with Dementia

Full analysis

Christy Byrne Yates, whose mother had Alzheimer's, describes a practice she calls 'connection over correction': when a person with dementia says something factually wrong, resisting the urge to correct them and instead entering their reality preserves the relationship and reduces distress on both sides. She illustrates this with a concrete example — if a parent claims to have danced on Broadway, the right move is to ask how it went and enjoy the story, not dispute the fact. Yates says she initially believed that keeping her mother oriented to reality might slow the disease's progression, but she learned that it does not work that way. The practical shift is to treat the emotional connection in the moment as the goal, rather than factual accuracy.