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Aging
Point Four: Everybody's different!
- Individual differences are greater than aging changes.
Point Six: Practice, practice, practice.
- Learning may be slower in older persons, but learning is still possible.
Point Seven: Recognize Change and
respond appropriately.
- "When you get to this age, you sure have to adjust! My!"
- Lloyd Swesey, the day after his 85th birthday.
Notes:
Even if skills abate – especially if skills abate – recurrency training and practice are important.
New skills are learned more slowly, but this merely requires more time and practice. Unless the basic ability to perform never existed or has been lost, in which case the only appropriate response is to bail out.
Yet changes of ability will happen to all of us. We must look for these changes, test ourselves to look for change, and then respond appropriately to it. I'ts a sad think to see an old person with obviously declining abilities, who won't admit it or adjust to it. Everyone else knows, and no one seems to be willing to help him or her discover the truth – and perhaps no one can.