Just like anyone else, elderly folks tense up when they begin to fall. However, if you are able to demonstrate to your elder how to completely relax and fall like a rag doll would, the chances of reducing the severity of injury is greatly enhanced. You can fall into a chair or a bed to take the time to demonstrate this. Simply go limp as you fall. Once you’ve done this a few times, ask your elder if they want to try it. Don’t force them into doing this, but impress upon them how important it could be to help them escape serious injury should they fall.

Once you have gone through this exercise with them, you’ll want to work with them on what to do once they are on the ground. Show them how to roll onto their hands so that they are able to crawl to a telephone to call for help. This can be accomplished by having them use a solid piece of furniture to raise themselves up for support. Not only will this help your elder in understanding how to get to the phone, but it will help them understand how to help themselves as opposed to panicking when they fall.

Regardless if they think they are fine after a fall, they should call for help – either by calling a caregiver, neighbor or 911. Anytime an elderly person falls, they absolutely need to be checked out by a doctor. Falls can sometimes be due to illnesses that have gone undetected, stroke, medication issues or potential infections.

If your elder falls when you are present, you will want to check for any severe pain they may be in, along with any difficulty they may have while trying to move. If they are in significant pain, or can’t move, keep them calm and call 911 for additional assistance. If they don’t appear to be in significant pain and are able to move, offer them support by bending your legs and keeping your own body straight. Another option would be to bring a small table or strong chair to them so they can lift themselves up on it with your help. Don’t risk injury to yourself or further injury to your elder – if you don’t think you will be able to help your elder without injuring yourself or causing further injury to your elder.

Many people love learning languages or would like to learn a language and use their language skills in a job. In today’s global economy the demand for language skills continues to grow as governments, businesses and organisations build relationships with foreign interests.

1 MAKE THE FULLEST USE OF YOUR MP3 PLAYER.

If you have one and you’re not using it for language acquisition, you’re losing an opportunity for gaining in fluency. You can record snippets of vocabulary or grammar instruction whenever you have a few moments of free time, or pages and pages worth when you’re at your leisure. Then, during times that would otherwise be wasted – washing up, lying dozing in bed, going for a walk – you can play it back and simultaneously be improving your language skills.

2 DUAL TEXT BOOKS

What a wonderful thing dual text books are. Often novels or short stories, these books have one facing page in, say, Spanish, and the other in English. This speeds progress through the book and aids idiomatic comprehension enormously. Sadly the stock of dual texts is limited. However the same effect can be achieved by obtaining two copies of the same book, one in your chosen language and the other in English. It takes a little more juggling this way, but can still have a very beneficial effect on reading comprehension.

3 GET YOURSELF A NATIVE SPEAKER PENPAL

In the age of the internet this is something that’s increasingly easy to do. Check out Livemocha.com or one of numerous alternatives currently available. Your French/German/etc. improves, your penpal’s English improves, everybody wins.

4 SIMULATE LANGUAGE IMMERSION AS CLOSELY AS POSSIBLE

‘Immersion’ is the catchphrase, the most popular concept amongst language course providers and teachers at the moment. And it’s a good one: the trouble is we don’t all have the money, time or resources to dump everything and go live in our country of choice for six or eighteen months.

5 USE YOUR HOLIDAYS TO THE MAX

This is another point related to the ideal of immersion. Often when learning a language we will book a holiday in the relevant country, and think hopefully of all we will achieve in terms of language acquisition as a result. As you may know, this does not always pan out!