[For Seniors] Brain Training Recommended for Dementia Prevention
In this article, we introduce brain-training activities that can help prevent dementia in older adults.
As we age, memory is something everyone worries about.
For those concerned, we recommend simple, easy-to-do brain training designed for seniors.
Doing brain training activates the brain and can contribute to overall mental and physical well-being.
There are quiz formats, riddles, four-character idioms, and even brain-training activities you can do while moving your body.
Find the brain training that suits you, and enjoy doing it.
If you’re a caregiving professional looking for brain-training ideas, be sure to check these out.
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- [For Seniors] Popular Brain Training and Recreational Quizzes
- [For Seniors] Fun and Lively! Recommended Quiz Questions
- [For Seniors] Fun Riddles That Stimulate the Brain
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Brain Training! Finger Exercises That Help Prevent Dementia
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- [Brain Training] Lively Word Quiz for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Recreational activities and games that let you have fun while strengthening your legs
[For Seniors] Brain Training That Helps Prevent Dementia! Recommended Exercises (101–110)
Flying Fukuwarai
Some older adults may have played fukuwarai during the New Year holidays.
Fukuwarai is the game where you’re blindfolded and place facial features onto a face, right? Part of the fun is not being able to place the features correctly.
But with “Flying Fukuwarai,” there’s no blindfold.
Instead, you toss large facial feature pieces onto a sheet of paper with a large face drawn on it.
Of course, it still often results in hilariously misplaced features, which makes it exciting.
And because you throw the pieces while looking at the face, it’s said to help train spatial awareness.
Spatial awareness is the ability to perceive positions and shapes within space.
When it declines, people may get lost on familiar routes or bump into things more easily.
Give Flying Fukuwarai a try for a fun brain workout!
PET bottle cap grab game
Here’s a game that uses PET bottle caps to train finger dexterity.
Pick up PET bottle caps and drop them into paper cups.
However, you’ll use clothespins to pick up the caps.
Handling clothespins requires a certain amount of strength.
Simply using clothespins can also improve fine motor skills by encouraging nimble finger movements.
Let’s not only aim for brain-training benefits through finger use, but also strengthen the fingers and hands.
By making it a game, older adults can enjoy themselves while getting in some training.
Give it a try!
Paper Core Bowling
Back in the Showa era, there was a time when bowling was hugely popular.
Some older adults may have been into bowling back then.
Let’s rekindle those memories and get our fingers moving with a bowling game.
Use toilet paper rolls as pins, and a lightweight rubber ball that doesn’t feel heavy to knock them down.
Since it can be played on a table, people who have difficulty standing can participate as well.
Keeping score like in real bowling will make it even more exciting.
Grid-fill calculation
While brain-training activities recommended for seniors include word chain games (shiritori), riddles, and delayed rock-paper-scissors, this one involves doing arithmetic problems mentally.
Hearing “arithmetic problems” might make you think they’re difficult, but to activate the brain, it’s better to start with simple addition and subtraction rather than hard problems.
Even simple calculations can give you a sense of achievement when you solve them using your head.
As the exercises progress, the numbers get larger, so try gradually challenging yourself to speed up your calculations as well.
Rubik’s Cube
This is a classic puzzle where you twist and turn the blocks to align all six faces.
It tests your ability to visualize how each square will move and where it will end up.
Relying on intuition alone makes completing all six faces difficult, so learning specific algorithms is important—starting by solving just one face is recommended.
As you get better at moving the blocks to the positions you intend, you’ll also start to feel yourself getting closer to completing all six faces.
[For Seniors] Prevent Dementia! Recommended Brain Training (111–120)
Great for recreation too! Train your core and fingertips with a newspaper tower
This is a newspaper-tube tower that lets you train your core while playing! The rules are super simple: just stack triangular tubes made by folding newspaper.
Starting by placing them on the floor while seated helps strengthen your core muscles, and straightening your back to stack them higher helps build your back muscles and improve posture.
Set the goal according to your condition—for example, up to where your hands can reach, or, if you can stand, up to the height you can stack while standing.
It’s also fun to time yourselves and race with everyone!
Which number is the most ___?
Are you familiar with working memory? Working memory is the ability to temporarily store and process information needed for tasks and actions.
It’s said to be involved in judgments and behaviors in all aspects of daily life.
Let’s train our working memory by searching, among many numbers, for either the larger numbers or the smaller numbers.
While thinking about whether a number is large or small, focus on finding the numbers.
Some older adults may feel, “I can’t find any at all.” But there’s no need to worry.
The goal isn’t necessarily to find them; simply looking for large or small numbers itself serves as brain training.