[For Seniors] DIY Rehabilitation Aids: A Collection of Easy-to-Make Ideas
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 Hand Rehabilitation Tools to Strengthen Fingertips: A Collection of Handmade Ideas
- [For Seniors] Finger Rehabilitation Tools: Easy DIY Ideas
- [For Seniors] Ideal for Finger Rehabilitation: A Collection of Simple Ideas Made with Yarn
- [For Seniors] Great for Brain Training! Enjoy Handmade Puzzles
- [For Seniors] Recommended Handmade Activities! Simple Ideas
- [For Seniors] Simple and Fun: Craft Ideas You Can Make with Everyday Items
- [For Seniors] For Men! Easy Craft Kit
- For seniors: Recommended for day services. Hands-on activities that help prevent dementia.
- [For Seniors] Practical Crafts to Make in Day-Service Recreation: Idea Roundup
- [For Seniors] Let’s Have Fun While Training the Brain! Handmade Card Game Ideas
- [For Seniors] Enjoy Your Alone Time: Perfect Ideas for Passing the Time
- [For Seniors] Handmade gifts they’ll love: a roundup of simple ideas
- [For Seniors] Recommended Muscle Training Gear. Simple and Easy
[For Seniors] DIY Rehabilitation Aids: A Collection of Easy-to-Make Ideas (31–40)
Prevent falls with rehabilitation!
A simple item that’s just a large cardboard sheet with numbers on it; you move your feet based on those numbers.
While counting the numbers from 1 to 8 written on the cardboard, move your feet to each numbered position.
By doing this step, you’ll become more aware of how you open your stance and step forward and back, which can help promote smoother walking in daily life and prevent falls.
First, get used to the step positions while seated, and once you feel it’s safe, it’s recommended to do it standing.
Let’s pay the money.
@user8492253312849 Independent Project Work Log 70. Let's Pay MoneyTranslationHandmade teaching materialsSpecial Needs Education#AutismNeurodevelopmental disorder#After-school Day ServicesTokachi# developmental support (ryōiku)
♬ A heartwarming cute song for everyday scenes(840142) – Sumochi
When you go shopping, you pay money and think about the prices of items, right? Let’s turn those actions—using your hands to take out and put away money, and calculating item prices—into a training activity.
Place the appropriate amount of money on cards that show products and their prices.
Checkout-style practice is effective for finger dexterity and brain training.
It’s also useful for older adults who want to try going shopping in real life.
Many seniors say they want to go shopping, but if someone hasn’t shopped for several years, it can be hard to do it smoothly right away.
Why not gradually get used to shopping and paying by practicing handling money?
Pegboard made from an empty egg carton
@funotactivities DIY Fine motor pegboard using egg carton with crayons! #occupationaltherapy#schoolot#activitiesforkids#crayola#rainbow#ot#kidscraft#fun#diy
♬ Dynamite – BTS
A pegboard is a wooden board with holes into which you insert pegs—wooden pins that vary in color, shape, and size.
Because it involves grasping the pegs and inserting or removing them from holes, it’s used for upper-limb training.
Commercial versions can range from around a thousand yen to several tens of thousands of yen.
Here’s a more affordable, homemade alternative: a pegboard made from an empty egg carton.
Paint the rounded egg-holder sections of a paper egg carton and make holes in them.
Use crayons as the pegs.
Insert each crayon into the hole with the matching color on the egg carton.
You’ll have an inexpensive and easy-to-make rehabilitation tool ready to use.
Colored ball matching
@colorful_0501 Translation# developmental support (ryōiku)Translation#TherapeuticSupportGoodsHandmade teaching materialsHandmade goodsEducational materials for early childhood developmentEducational#Handmade Educational MaterialsMatchingPut indexterousHands-on playFinger playFinger Dexterity EducationPlaying house#NeurodevelopmentalDisordersDevelopmental SupportPerson with developmental delayChild Development Support#Support for Visits to Nursery Schools and Similar Facilities#TherapeuticSupportAutism spectrum#Autism#ADHDAttention-Deficit/Hyperactivity DisorderFukuoka PrefectureKurume City
‘Sorry for Being Cute (feat. Kopi)’ – HoneyWorks
Here’s a rehabilitation activity that helps train finger dexterity while learning colors.
You’ll use an ice tray like the ones used to make ice in the freezer.
Pinch and place craft pom-poms into the compartments of the ice tray with your fingers.
Prepare pom-poms in a variety of colors.
Make a sample in advance, and then place the pom-poms to match the sample.
By distinguishing colors, you can train the ability to observe carefully and compare objects.
It can be done alone with focus, or enjoyed in a small group as a friendly competition.
A tool for training hand and finger skills with lacing (threading) activities
Let me introduce a lacing tool that can train both the fingers and the wrist! Prepare several long, narrow wooden boards with holes drilled large enough for a lace to pass through.
Stand them upright and attach them to a single base board—done! The trainee will pass a lace through the holes one by one, similar to threading a needle.
Start by using both hands, then try using only the dominant hand, moving the fingers skillfully while threading the lace.
Everyone has directions that feel easier to thread, but attempting it from the more difficult directions will further promote finger exercise.
[For Seniors] DIY Rehabilitation Tools: A Collection of Easy-to-Make Ideas (41–50)
Finger exercise gadget made from a milk carton
Introducing an easy rehab tool you can make with milk cartons! First, prepare lots of milk cartons cut into thin, ring-shaped slices.
If you’re using cartons that have been opened flat, shape them into rings after cutting.
Once you have plenty of milk carton rings like those used for ring toss, you’re ready to go! The trainee will pick them up one by one with their fingers and stack them like a tower.
If they use chopsticks to pick up the rings, it also becomes chopstick training! It’s also fun to add a game element, like competing to see who can build the tallest stack within a set time.
Handmade Othello
Othello, which everyone knows.
This time, we’ll show you how to make a handmade version using plastic bottle caps.
Prepare lots of plastic bottle caps in two colors and a piece of cardboard.
Tape two caps of different colors back-to-back to make the discs.
Draw a grid on the cardboard.
After that, you can enjoy playing just like a regular Othello set.
The handmade pieces are easier to pick up, so even those who aren’t comfortable with fine finger movements can enjoy the game.
Give it a try—make it and play!
