[For Seniors] Recommended Even for People with Dementia! Simple Recreational Activities
Recreation activities conducted at nursing and care facilities aim to improve brain and physical functions.
They are said to help activate the brain and can be expected to prevent dementia or slow its progression.
However, it is also important to maintain emotional well-being through feelings like “this is fun, I feel happy” and communication with others.
If people push themselves too hard for functional improvement and the things they “can’t do” become a source of stress, they won’t be able to enjoy the activities.
So this time, we’re introducing “simple recreation” ideas!
These are easy, accessible activities designed for older adults to enjoy.
Please feel free to make use of them.
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- Simple games for preventing and improving dementia
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- Recommended recreational activities for older adults with dementia
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
- [For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
- [Elderly Day Service] Let’s all have fun! Games and recreational activities
- [For Seniors] A Collection of Fun Classic Caregiving Activities
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy to try. Fun, crowd-pleasing recreation
- [For Seniors] Simple Recreational Activities You Can Enjoy While Seated
- For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
[For Seniors] Recommended for People with Dementia Too! Simple Recreational Activities (1–10)
origami
Origami is easy to incorporate because the only thing you need is origami paper, making it a familiar and accessible activity for older adults as well.
Even though we say “origami” in a single word, there are many ways to enjoy it—from very simple models you can fold right away to complex, three-dimensional creations.
By thinking through the order of the steps and using fine finger movements, you can also expect brain-training benefits, making it effective for people with dementia.
We also recommend displaying the finished pieces on the wall.
movie watching
Watching movies is a recommended recreational activity for people with dementia.
Films with relatively short runtimes that can be enjoyed in a relaxed way are ideal.
Consider researching genres and titles that are often well-liked, such as period dramas, popular films from the Showa era, musicals, or movies that evoke a sense of the seasons.
Watching nostalgic films can have a reminiscence-therapy effect for older adults, stimulating the brain and helping to slow the progression of dementia.
Finger exercises for dementia prevention
The scientific basis for piano being a standard extracurricular activity for children is that moving the fingers stimulates the brain.
This doesn’t apply only to children—it also holds true for adults and the elderly, which is why finger-based recreational activities are frequently used in caregiving settings.
This “Finger Exercises for Dementia Prevention” is one such finger-focused recreation that can be enjoyed in a setup with a quizmaster and other participants.
Even when mistakes are made, everyone can laugh and have fun together, making it both brain training and a source of cheerful energy.
[For Seniors] Recommended Even for People with Dementia! Simple Recreations (11–20)
karuta (traditional Japanese playing cards)
Karuta is a game where you listen to the reading cards and compete to grab the picture cards.
It’s recommended for people with dementia because it stimulates hearing and sight.
When playing with a large group, commercially available karuta sets may be a bit small, so it could be fun to make your own sets together, such as a “Popular Songs Karuta” or a “National Travel Karuta.” Karuta used to be a classic New Year’s pastime, and many older adults likely have one or two memories connected to it.
It would be wonderful to enjoy karuta along with those memories and the conversations they bring.
Flip Brain Training
Brain training is said to help prevent dementia in older adults.
Many care facilities already incorporate such activities, but it’s easy to run out of ideas.
That’s when we recommend “Flip Brain Training.” It’s a simple activity where, in response to the caller’s prompt, participants either perform a gesture or name a color—but it’s surprisingly tricky.
Mistakes turn into laughs, so it’s something everyone can enjoy over and over again.
Onigiri Concentration
This is a concentration/memory game where you flip over onigiri cards and try to match the same fillings.
Since there are many cards for each filling—like “12 umeboshi” and “6 cod roe”—you have a relatively high chance of getting a match even when drawing at random, which is part of the appeal.
While it’s important to engage your memory—such as recalling where cards were—be sure to celebrate correct matches so everyone feels good and stays enthusiastic about the game.
If matching proves difficult, it’s also recommended to reveal all the cards and give players time to memorize their locations.
In the end, compare everyone’s hands and get excited about how each set of fillings came together.
Core and fingertip training 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!
