[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
We’ve put together a collection of brain-training puzzles and simple exercises that you’ll want to actively incorporate into recreational activities.
It’s easy to get bored with the same types of puzzles and games, right?
Let’s liven up your recreation time with puzzles you haven’t tried before, or some quirky and fun challenges and exercises!
If it’s difficult, try allowing more time to think or offering hints so everyone can enjoy it as they go.
We’re also introducing plenty of activities that can make people laugh and lighten the mood, even if they don’t know the answer.
Feel free to use these as a reference and put them to good use!
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises
- [For Seniors] Fun and Lively! Recommended Quiz Questions
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Easy and fun seated activities you can do in your room
- [For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! A Collection of Tricky Quizzes You’ll Definitely Get Stumped By
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Fun Recreational Activities Without Equipment
- [For Seniors] Find daily brain training. Today’s recommended brain workout.
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- Fun Brain Training! Memory Games for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Lively Wordplay Game: Fun Recreation for Elderly Care
- [For Seniors] Today’s Recommended Activity: Fun and Engaging
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreational Activities (21–30)
Cognicise using paper cups
This is a cognicise activity you can enjoy as a recreational game.
Prepare a paper cup and a beanbag.
Toss the beanbag into your own paper cup.
Gradually increase the challenge by adding marching in place, tossing the beanbag higher, or switching the hands holding the paper cup and the beanbag.
If it becomes too easy, your brain won’t be engaged anymore.
You can also stand in a circle and toss your beanbag into someone else’s paper cup, which is fun too.
In that case, increase the number of beanbags as you go.
It’s a cognicise activity that gets lively and enjoyable.
Letter Shuffle Game
The letter-shuffling game sounds fun! Rearranging scrambled letters to make words is a great brain workout, and it’s enjoyable to think together as a group.
Taking your time and giving each other hints as you go should make it even more exciting.
It might be good to start with simple three-letter words and increase the number of letters as everyone gets used to it.
It’s also nice that people who use wheelchairs can easily join in.
Moving your hands can be good stimulation, too.
I think it’s a wonderful game that lets everyone laugh together while having fun and activating their brains!
[For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreational Activities (31–40)
Brain training with gojūon (Japanese syllabary) cards
As we age, it seems we may sometimes forget words.
So let’s use a set of kana cards to stimulate the brain.
First, arrange the cards in order starting from the A-row together with the older adult.
The act of arranging itself is said to help activate the brain.
Use the cards to form words—the more letters a word has, the higher the points.
Additionally, once a card has been used to make a word, it cannot be used again.
Treat voiced and semi-voiced marks (dakuten and handakuten) as a single card and make them count for points as well.
If someone can’t think of a word, it’s helpful for those around to offer hints like, “Let’s think of a word that starts with A.”
Shiritori Card Game
Haven’t many older adults played shiritori at least once? Here’s a familiar shiritori-style card game for seniors.
Prepare cards with each of the 50 Japanese syllables written on them, and deal five cards to each player.
Place the remaining cards in the center and draw one card to start.
Think of a word that begins with the syllable of the drawn card, so that the last letter of your chosen word matches one of the cards in your hand.
Adding a rule like “use three-letter words” makes it even more fun and can help stimulate the brain.
The first person to use up all their cards wins.
Let’s all enjoy thinking of words together while we play.
Finger exercises with plastic bottle caps
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.
Memory Challenge Quiz
“Do you remember what the picture we just saw was?” With this prompt, you begin a memory quiz that involves looking at and remembering pictures.
It’s a highly effective activity that engages vision, memory, and concentration at the same time.
Images and photos tend to be absorbed more intuitively than words, and they’re easier to grasp instinctively even for older adults.
By enjoying colorful illustrations and nostalgic items, the brain is naturally activated.
The sense of achievement from saying “I remembered it!” or “I got it right!” helps build confidence.
Shiritori using 2 letters
Speaking of shiritori, it’s the classic word game where you take the last character of a word and connect it to a new word.
Let’s make it a bit trickier by using the last two characters to link to the next word.
Even though you’re using more letters, that part isn’t too hard—the real challenge is making sure the second-to-last character isn’t “n,” which would end the chain.
Once you get used to the rules, you can spice it up further—like limiting it to four-letter words—to make it even more exciting.
