Lovely senior life

[For Seniors] DIY Rehabilitation Aids: A Collection of Easy-to-Make Ideas

Social worker / Care workermoko
My name is Moko, a mother of three who admired my mother and worked in the care industry as a care worker and as a medical social worker (MSW) in a hospital. I will be drawing on my previous experience to write mainly about caregiving. Thank you in advance.
Care Worker Initial Training Certification ObtainedNakajima Junko
Leveraging my experience working as a care worker at a day service, I am currently active as a writer in the caregiving and welfare fields. Beyond writing, I hope to expand my work into web design and illustration. I am a mother of three who has begun studying to become a certified social worker.

The main goal of rehabilitation for older adults is to restore motor functions that have declined due to illness or injury, so they can live independently in their daily lives.

Some people train using store-bought items that have rehabilitative effects.

However, commercial products can be expensive and not easy to purchase.

That’s why this time we’re introducing ideas for handmade rehabilitation tools that you can make with relatively easy-to-find materials, such as those from 100-yen shops.

We’ve collected ideas that are effective for brain training and allow for easy rehabilitation.

It can also be great to start from the process of making them together with older adults.

Please use these ideas as a reference and give them a try.

[For Seniors] DIY Rehabilitation Aids: A Collection of Easy-to-Make Ideas (21–30)

Brain-training goods made from clear files

[Training goods you can make from unwanted items and 100-yen shop materials] Shape matching with a clear file

Brain-training goods made from clear files

This is a game where you combine transparent plastic cards printed with shapes and lines to recreate a sample figure presented in the challenge.

Some figures may look impossible to make with the cards you have, encouraging players to think carefully about how to layer them.

There are techniques such as deliberately overlapping lines to reduce the number of visible lines, so offering effective hints is important when players get stuck.

The process of reasoning about shapes makes it perfect for brain training, and adjusting the positions of the cards to match the sample as closely as possible also helps players focus on fine motor control.

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Felt and buttons

[Rehabilitation Goods] Handmade—Wait, using scrap materials? You can train your fingers and your brain! Premium-level

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.

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Button fastener training aid

Recommended for day-service programs: Functional training using handmade rehabilitation tools that incorporate essential daily-life movements—doubles as individualized ADL practice. [Care Prevention / Senior Recreation]

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.

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Pulley

Easy to do at home! A DIY rehabilitation tool: “Pulley” | vol.42 #Shorts

Pulley

Let’s try making a pulley system, which is highly effective for improving upper limb function.

Pulley exercises are a form of rehabilitation performed while seated.

Using exercise equipment, you thread a rope through a pulley positioned overhead, hold the grips attached to both ends of the rope, and alternately raise and lower your hands.

We’ll use items like a pulley, bag strap (webbing), and a round wooden rod to build it.

Thread and tie the cord through the pulley, and drill holes in the wooden rod to pass the cord through.

The bag strap will be used as the part that allows you to hang the pulley on a door.

By using the pulley and the pulling force of the opposite arm, even those who have difficulty raising an arm with their own strength can lift it.

Please use this as a reference and give it a try.

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Bottle opening and closing training tool

[Recommended for Day Service] Individual functional training! Finger and fine-motor training using handmade rehabilitation tools [Care Prevention / Recreational Activities for Seniors]

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!

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Finger training with a pegboard

[100-Yen Shop] Finger Dexterity Training + Brain Activation with a Daiso Pegboard!

Finger training with a pegboard

A key point with rehabilitation and training is to keep them going.

There are many kinds of rehab tools, but if they’re expensive or hard to carry around, it becomes difficult to stick with them.

So, here’s a fingertip training tool you can make using items from a 100-yen shop.

Prepare a plastic perforated board with evenly spaced holes and a shoelace.

A regular string works fine, too.

Thread the shoelace through the holes in the perforated board.

This trains finger movements and is effective for actions like lacing shoes, sewing and other crafts, and even using chopsticks.

Try it with your non-dominant hand as well.

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Finger and brain training goods

[Recommended for Day Service] Individual functional training! Finger and fine-motor training using handmade rehabilitation tools [Care Prevention / Recreational Activities for Seniors]

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!

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