Reddit reviews Filexec Products File-A-Flash 2 x 3 inches Binder Ring Easy Flip Flash Cards, 75 Unruled Colored Pages, 4 Pack, Clear (50294-20000)

Hi OP, I'm sorry to hear about your dad - i know how difficult and awful this is. Here is something I did when my dad was sick.

Towards the end when my dad got really unable to communicate it got really painful to watch him struggle to speak, and really painful for us to try and understand him. I wanted to make it less stressful for everyone involved so I created these Index Cards for him, my family, and the nurses who helped us. They ended up being extremely extremely helpful!

I attached a link to a picture for an example - I'm wishing now I would have taken a better quality one when I finished them but this is the best I have. http://imgur.com/a/4MujI

Essentially I thought up general categories.. BPAP, Head, Feet, Bathroom, Other, Nurse, Family, etc. (or really any other broad category you can think of.. like Food or Drink or something would work too). Once I had those broad categories I created more cards for the more in-depth things.. so like within Head there might be a card for itchy, or scratch. Within Family there were cards for each family member and then things like I love you, How was your Day.. or other small things like this. And so forth with all of the other categories. I had cards for Left or Right - I maybe went a little overboard on it because it got a little difficult to organize.

But anyways, once I created all of those on the index cards i punched holes in the top corner and organized them by category, with the general category on top and all the more in depth cards beneath it. Each category got its own hoop ring (similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Filexec-Products-Unruled-Colored-50294-20000/dp/B006NVLUEA).

From then on when we knew my dad wanted something but it was too difficult to speak or we couldn't understand him we would use the index cards to figure out what he wanted. I think it helped ease the burden a bit on everyone.

Sometimes when my mom walked in to my dad after a long day at work and she grabbed the card she would end up at the Family card, and under Mom was a card for I love you. Even though he couldn't say it out loud, he still was able to say it this way and I think that meant a lot to everyone.

My last suggestion, which is something my dad and i did until the day he passed was to play games on our phones together (we lived on opposite ends of the country). We played Words with Friends and Settlers of Catan online - 2 of his favorite games. And even though we weren't communicating through spoken word I know it meant a lot to both of us that we could do this. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, want someone to chat with, or need more explanation on the cards!

And stay strong :)

i had to learn an enormous amount of german vocabulary over around 6 months. one tool i used that was very helpful was tiny flash cards - maybe 2" x 1" that were all on a small key ring. on the front i wrote the german, on the back the translation.

one set held verbs, one held nouns and so on.. i was always finding more words to add, so each week i was learning more, and reviewing the old ones at the same time.

at stop lights, on buses, waiting in line, at breakfast, in the bathtub, etc. i would go through them. it really worked, and was very easy. i passed my graduate qualifying exam with flying colors, and am now fairly fluent.

http://www.amazon.com/Filexec-Products-File-A-Flash-Unruled-50294-20000/dp/B006NVLUEA/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1369695662&sr=8-8&keywords=blank+flash+cards

These are a godsend in any math or science class where you have to diagram or graph things.

These are the best for making flash cards. You can by categorize color for nouns, verbs, etc. in a language class, or for vocabulary vs. concepts in a science class.

I have been cleaning mine up. =)