Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
Hand-based activities are a fun and effective way for older adults to stimulate the brain.
Even simple hand games can stimulate the brain by moving the fingertips, helping to maintain or improve cognitive function.
In addition, doing them to music or together with others naturally brings more smiles and increases opportunities for communication.
In this article, we introduce hand games that are easy for seniors to enjoy without strain and also work as brain training.
Incorporate easy activities into your routine to maintain your health while having fun!
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Extremely Effective Brain Training! A Fun Collection of Hand Games
- [For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
- [For Seniors] Recommended Muscle Training Gear. Simple and Easy
- Fun Brain Training! Memory Games for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Fun! Games and Ideas to Boost Memory
- [For Seniors] Easy to try. Fun, crowd-pleasing recreation
- [For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun While Training the Brain! Handmade Card Game Ideas
- [For Seniors] Enjoy Easily! Hand Play 'Shimoshika Meyo' (If If, Tortoise)
- [For Seniors] Popular Hand-Play Songs: Fun Brain-Training Ideas
- [For Seniors] Recommended Handmade Activities! Simple Ideas
- [For Seniors] Winter Haiku: Introducing Beautiful Masterpieces by Famous Haiku Poets
[For Seniors] Lively Hand Games That Also Train the Brain (141–150)
ball toss (traditional Japanese beanbag/ball-throwing game)
Tamaire, the ball-toss game often seen at school sports festivals.
Some older adults may have taken part in sports days and played tamaire in the past.
Here’s a perfect tamaire activity for a warm April day to get the body moving.
Because it’s a familiar game, it can help older adults refresh their mood and relieve stress.
Have participants sit in chairs and place a basket in the center.
Prepare red, white, and other colored balls, and have the participants throw them into the basket.
The person who gets the most balls in the basket wins.
Throwing with the arms and shoulders also provides upper-body exercise.
Ball Grabbing Game
Let’s play a game where you grab balls using newspaper.
All the tools used in the game are made from newspaper.
Make the balls by crumpling newspaper into a sphere, and make the grabbing sticks out of newspaper as well.
You can create everything you need for the game using everyday materials.
Place several balls inside a circle, grab them with the stick, and put them into a basket.
If you set a time limit, the game gets more exciting.
Forming teams and competing for the best time will make it even more fun.
Brain-training exercises that make you laugh
The Nikko Kaido is a famous cherry blossom spot in Tochigi Prefecture.
Some older adults may have visited the Nikko Kaido to see the blossoms.
At the end of the Nikko Kaido is Nikko Toshogu Shrine, which is also known for the Three Wise Monkeys.
Let’s strike poses with our hands to match the Three Monkeys—see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.
When the cues are called—see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil—use your hands to cover your eyes, ears, or mouth.
If you call out “see no evil” but then cover your ears as a trick, it livens things up.
You can also increase the difficulty by, for example, adding a single clap when “see no evil” is called.
As older adults get used to it, gradually raise the difficulty and encourage them to keep challenging themselves.
[For Seniors] Engaging Hand Games That Also Train the Brain (151–160)
Funny Gesture Exercises
A gesture game where you don’t speak, but watch movements and guess the answer.
Because it’s often played on TV shows and at parties, many older adults may already be familiar with it.
In gesture games, you watch the movements, imagine what they mean, and answer.
Imagining is said to help activate the brain.
What’s more, having older adults perform the prompted actions themselves boosts the brain-training effect.
Since you’re getting older adults to move, it’s like gesture exercise.
Expanding prompts from “eating a mandarin” to “peeling and eating a mandarin” also stimulates the imagination.
Adjust the difficulty to suit the older adults.
The more movements you add, the more smiles you’re likely to see.
Funny Clapping Exercise
Clapping exercises where everyone follows the model in the same way can stimulate the brain by requiring you to judge movements from the example.
As you proceed with clapping in various rhythms, people are likely to become more aware of the speed of their movements and how much force they use.
It’s also recommended to speed up the clapping and then stop suddenly—you might even get some laughs when seeing whether everyone can truly freeze their movement at that moment.
In addition to focusing on the model and controlling speed and force, patting the body can also help promote blood circulation.
Matching game
This is a game where you look at the pictures drawn on the bottoms of arranged paper cups and find and match the ones with the same picture.
By searching for matching pictures, you can train concentration, and by quickly stacking the paper cups, you can also encourage awareness of hand movements.
It’s also important to decide what kind of pictures to draw; for example, limiting them to a spring theme lets players enjoy the game visually as well.
Adding trick elements, such as pictures that look similar but are slightly different, is recommended, as it helps players focus even more on their hands.
Foot rock-paper-scissors clapping exercise
This is a game where you make the rock-paper-scissors shapes with your feet in sequence, and make the order more complex by inserting hand claps.
By switching the order of the shapes and where you add the claps, you can turn it into brain training.
Repeat the same movements for a while, then change the order once you’re used to it so you can focus clearly on the sequence.
If movement alone is confusing, saying the steps out loud as you go is an easy-to-follow option I recommend.