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My mother can't use logic to solve problems or to make observations any more. One family member says I should gently use logic to show her the error of her thinking, and another family member says I should just agree with whatever she says, to validate her. I don't know what to do!

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dgholson5, You cannot train the brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer.
There is no point in using logic to prove a point because the brain is slowly "becoming broken" and fewer and fewer "pennies are going to drop" . Easier to accept that your mother may find it increasingly difficult to follow a complicated argument or understand instructions for operating a remote. And if you start explaining things to them, they can get nervous because they imagine you are being hostile. And don't forget, early sufferers of mental diseases absolutely HATE what is happening to them, often feeling ashamed or desperate.

Just laugh and distract her by moving onto another subject. Speak about the present day, or to keep up her conversation skills, ask her questions about her long lost past, or what it was like to bring you up as a baby/toddler. That information will be irrefutable and will restore a bit of authority to her. Just don't argue with her. Ever.
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You can't reason with a dementia patient. It causes frustration on both sides.
When my mother's dementia got to a certain point, explaining things logically didn't work, in fact it made her argue and get upset. She also forgot the argument in about 5 minutes. I am sorry my sister and I tried this route so many times before we learned that acting like "her mother", trying to teach or lecture her got us nowhere.
At 98 she was still insisting she could drive a car and could take care of a house. In her head that was her truth and she believed it. When she went through the stage of believing she was constipated and buying a couple of bottles milk of magnesia there was no way we could convince her of the danger (and she was still independently functioning at the time) The message she got was we didn't want her to do it, so she bought more bottles and became creative hiding them all over the apartment. Dementia is interesting - how some mental processes stop working but she could still be clever enough to deceive.
Reasoning with a dementia patient simply doesn't work. Instead, try to distract or simply accept illogical behavior as long as it is not a safety risk.
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My opinion is no. All you will do is confuse her further.

I should clarify that by saying it depends on your mom's level of dementia.  If she is in the very early stages and is only making small mistakes, then yes, gently redirecting and using logic to explain - such as, "Mom, do the car keys belong in the fridge?" or "Mom, do socks go on our hands?" and see if she can make that connection to where they go.  It will help you keep an eye on her advancement into further dementia as well.  

But if she's already in more advanced dementia, or when she gets to that point, this might be helpful.
Look at it from your mom's point of view:
She no longer remembers how things work, how to problem-solve, etc - things she's known how to do for most of her life. But she doesn't really realize that she doesn't know how to do it - so she just kind of floats through the days without dealing with those issues. Now, along comes someone she knows and loves - one of the last things she can still cling to as familiar, when everything is slowly fading away in her mind, and the things she *doesn't* remember are starting to outnumber the things she does - and that person starts telling her that she's doing things wrong, saying things wrong, remembering things wrong, etc. She will be confused and, depending on her personality, react one of two ways: she'll either accept what you're saying and just start withdrawing from talking, for fear she'll say or do something wrong - or she'll get angry and confrontational with you about it, because it's frightening and confusing to be constantly told you're wrong or to have everything you're saying/doing corrected.

You can handle it however works best for you and your mom, of course. Just offering some thoughts here on how that whole situation works. When she does something that might be dangerous (like something that might cause her to fall, or trying to eat something she shouldn't, or perhaps trying to go out the door alone if she wanders), then of course you should intervene and stop her - gently redirect her to another activity or discussion.
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