[For Seniors] DIY Hand Rehabilitation Tools to Strengthen Fingertips: A Collection of Handmade Ideas
Daily rehabilitation exercises performed by seniors contribute to both mental and physical health.
Finger rehabilitation in particular is recommended, as it provides beneficial stimulation to the brain.
In this article, we introduce handmade items that are great for finger rehabilitation for older adults.
With the goal of improving finger function, we’ve gathered easy-to-incorporate, DIY ideas for everyday life.
You can easily get the materials at 100-yen shops, so why not give them a try? If you’re thinking about making your own rehab items, be sure to use this as a reference.
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[For Seniors] Rehabilitation tools to train fingertips: Handmade idea collection (21–30)
Felt and buttons
It’s a simple activity where you thread a button with a string through a piece of felt that has a slit in the middle.
Because threading a button is a movement used in daily life, it can help improve everyday activities like getting dressed.
Start by threading the button using both hands, and when it feels easy or you’ve gotten used to it, try challenging yourself to do it using only one hand.
Since the movement is simple, it’s important to add fun elements—like choosing felt in colors you love—to keep motivation high.
picking up (food) with chopsticks by stabbing/spearing it
It’s a simple activity where you use chopsticks to pick up small sponges and move them.
Because it’s a game that uses everyday actions, it might also help you go about your daily life more smoothly.
Focus on speed as you transfer the sponge onto a plate, then move it to another plate.
If you add a step where you place it into a small container instead of just plates, you can further train more precise finger movements.
Once you’re used to moving the sponge, it’s also recommended to switch to harder-to-grab items like small pieces of wood and give it a try.
Paper Cup Shooting Game
Paper cup target shooting sounds fun, doesn’t it? You can make it easily with just balloons and cups.
Since you simply launch ping-pong balls and play, older adults can join in comfortably.
It uses the fingertips, so it works as rehabilitation, and it’s great because everyone can enjoy it together.
If you get creative with the targets or prepare prizes, it’s sure to be even more exciting.
It also stimulates the imagination of older adults and helps activate the brain.
Definitely try it with friends and family.
Button fastener training aid
When it becomes difficult to move your fingers, putting on and taking off clothes can be challenging.
One of the hardest tasks is fastening and unfastening buttons.
This item helps you practice exactly that.
Attach a button to one end of a fabric scrap and make a buttonhole on the other end—then you’re ready to go! The person training uses this tool to practice fastening and unfastening the button.
To allow continuous practice, it’s a good idea to prepare several identical pieces.
To keep things interesting and prevent boredom, we also recommend varying the patterns of the fabric scraps and buttons.
Gaffer tape and a ping-pong ball
Prepare several ping-pong balls tightly wrapped with duct tape, and compete to see who can peel it off the fastest.
The key points are the concentration to figure out how the tape is wrapped, and the precise wrist and fingertip movements to remove it efficiently.
Increasing the number of ping-pong balls and wrapping them more thoroughly will raise the difficulty, so try a variety of patterns.
Depending on the tape material and how many layers are used, it may require significant force to peel off, so it’s important to prepare according to participants’ strength.
Bottle opening and closing training tool
There are times when you can’t get a good grip and it’s hard to open a plastic bottle cap, right? Let’s train with this tool so you can open caps on your own! Prepare several plastic bottles by cutting off the bottom two-thirds and leaving only the area near the mouth.
Firmly attach these to a single sheet of drawing paper or thick cardstock to fix them in place, and you’re done! The person training should practice twisting with the whole hand to open and close the caps, and then increase the difficulty by opening and closing the caps using just the fingertips.
This tool lets you move the hands, fingers, and wrists thoroughly, so definitely give it a try!
Finger and brain training goods
Here is a rehab tool that trains both hand and finger movements and also works as brain training.
First, prepare a sheet of paper with numbers written inside circles placed at random, and plastic bottle caps labeled with the same numbers.
It’s recommended to make the circles about the same size as the bottle caps.
The trainee will pick up a bottle cap with a number on it and place it on the spot with the matching number on the paper.
You can arrange the numbers neatly on the paper, or increase the difficulty by scattering them randomly.
Use this to practice grasping objects with the fingers and to exercise the brain by finding matching numbers!