[For Seniors] Brain Training Recommended for Dementia Prevention

Finger exercises with plastic bottle caps

Eliminate boredom! A senior recreation activity using plastic bottle caps that also promotes finger exercises #shorts #braintraining #dayservice

Here’s a recreational activity you can make using the many plastic bottle caps that tend to pile up.

Place the caps on a base sheet, matching each cap with the same kanji written on the sheet, making sure not to make mistakes.

Kanji sets that are hard to distinguish—like the fish or tree radicals series—are recommended.

Because players identify the characters while pinching the caps with their fingers, it trains both the brain and fine motor skills.

Give it a try—make it and play with it! You could also turn it into a game by pairing addition problems with their answers.

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Hirakawa Masako (Bōkarisuto: Sakata Mizumako)

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Moshikame Goo-Paa Hand Play

[Dementia Prevention] Finger play to the tune of “Moshi-Moshi Kameyo.” Open–close hand play edition.

Let’s do the open-and-close hand exercise along with the children’s song “The Hare and the Tortoise.” When you make a fist, move your thumbs either outside or tucked inside.

Doing it while singing is expected to further stimulate brain activity.

Match the movements to the lyrics: have both thumbs move the same way, or have each thumb move differently.

As you might guess, making them move differently is more challenging.

Once you get used to the thumb movements, give it a try.

It’s said that tasks that feel a bit harder than your usual movements are more effective at activating the brain.

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Nakajima Junko

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Brain training erasing letters on a whiteboard

Recreation for seniors: COVID-era activities, easy on a whiteboard, brain training! Letter Erasing

It’s a game where the 50 Japanese syllables are written on a whiteboard, and you make words using those characters.

Each character you use is erased from the board, and the goal is to create as many words as possible.

The key point is that you can’t use the same character again, so be mindful of which characters you should leave for later as you play.

If you start without thinking, you’ll tend to use the easy characters early on, so it’s recommended to deliberately come up with words that use the more difficult characters first.

Rather than just going with whatever words come to mind, it might be better to plan with the endgame in mind as you proceed.

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kappamaki

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Hometown: A song-and-exercise routine that livens things up with three movements

Sing-and-Move Exercise That Gets Everyone Excited with Just '3' Movements (2): Children's Song 'Furusato'

Move your hands to the melody of the children’s song “Furusato,” and stimulate your brain not only through the hand movements but also by visualizing your hometown.

The flow is two claps followed by forming a number with your hands, thinking ahead to the next number while keeping the rhythm of the song in mind.

After making a 5 with both hands, the count returns to 1, so this is where you should focus carefully and aim for smoother movements.

Once you get used to it, we also recommend increasing the speed to further improve concentration.

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kappamaki

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Exercise collection specialized in improving hand and finger movements

A collection of exercises focused on improving hand and finger movements!!

This is an exercise where you perform various finger movements in sequence, checking how your fingers move while aiming for smoother motion.

The routine progresses from overall movements to examining each finger’s motion one by one, gradually becoming more complex, which can also be expected to stimulate the brain.

If you find a movement that doesn’t go as you intend, focus on that one to work toward improving your finger control.

It’s also recommended to do the exercises to the rhythm of a children’s song or similar music, as it helps you keep time while you practice.

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kappamaki

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The Itomaki (Spool Winding) Song Using Rubber Bands

The Itomaki Song using rubber bands [An exercise activity for seniors!]

This exercise aims to make finger movements smoother by stretching a rubber band with both hands and moving it from finger to finger.

Maintaining strength is important to keep the band well stretched, so sustaining effort while moving adds complexity that also helps stimulate the brain.

If you coordinate the movement of shifting the rubber band with a song—such as the children’s song “Ito Maki”—and proceed rhythmically, it will further improve smoothness.

We also recommend starting with patterns that move the band to the same finger on both hands, then gradually shifting the positions to make the patterns more complex over time.

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kappamaki

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Kanji for sports

[Difficult Kanji Related to Sports] Impressive if You Can Read Them! A Challenging Kanji Quiz on Ball Sports (20 Questions in Total)

There are probably many seniors who look forward to sports news on TV and in the newspapers.

Sports like baseball and the Olympics can be enjoyable just to watch.

Some seniors may have played sports as a hobby in the past.

In that case, a sports-themed plastic bottle cap puzzle could be a great way to engage them.

Write the names of sports in kanji on the caps and place them on a sheet with the same sport written on it.

The sheet could also include illustrations of the sports.

We’d love for them to enjoy a kanji-based sports puzzle while getting into the spirit of sports.

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Nakajima Junko

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