[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises
Activities like games and brain training exercises conducted in senior facilities—often called “mental workouts”—are said to help prevent dementia or slow its progression.
So this time, we’re introducing “mental workouts for seniors”!
Mental workouts not only provide a sense of accomplishment when a problem is solved and activate brain functions, but they also play an important role in creating opportunities for communication with other seniors.
They are also recommended as a way to relieve stress for seniors who may fall into repetitive daily routines.
By adjusting the difficulty level to suit each senior’s condition and adding creative touches to make the activities easier to engage with, you can further increase their sense of satisfaction.
Try incorporating them into your recreation time or daily routine.
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- Recreation Activities Effective for Long-Term Care Prevention for Seniors
- Hand games that liven things up for seniors—also great brain training
- [For Seniors] Enjoyable Brain Training! Finger Exercises That Help Prevent Dementia
[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Exciting Mental Exercises (101–110)
palindrome
Do you know what a palindrome is? A palindrome is a sentence that reads the same forward and backward.
For example, “たいやきやいた” reads the same backward.
Let’s all try coming up with palindromes like this.
You can also prepare a set of characters in advance and rearrange them.
In that case, it may be easier to reveal the central part and then fit the characters around it.
There are YouTube videos that pose such challenges, so check them out for reference.
Let’s look up and walk with finger exercises
The song ‘Ue o Muite Arukou’ is a famous classic by Kyu Sakamoto.
It remains a beloved piece even today.
The familiar melody is wonderful, and the uplifting lyrics are lovely too.
This time, let’s do the Goo-Choki-Pa exercise while singing this song.
It’s an exercise where you have fun making rock-paper-scissors shapes with your left and right hands.
Doing it to such a soothing tune feels calming, doesn’t it? The tempo is relaxed, so it should be easy for older adults to keep the rhythm.
Foot and brain training with numbers
Walking is said to be good exercise for your legs and to help activate the brain.
Here’s an excellent way to get both benefits.
It’s an exercise that uses a 60-centimeter square cardboard board called a “step board.” To make the board, simply divide the cardboard surface into eight sections and write the numbers 1 through 8.
Place the board on the floor, put your feet on it, and try stepping with one foot at a time in order from number 1.
It’s even more effective if you increase the difficulty by trying patterns like “odd to even, even to odd” or “random numbers.”
Cognicise using numbers
Count numbers aloud, and clap your hands on every multiple of 3.
It looks simple, but it actually makes you use your brain.
Some older adults may find it difficult.
However, it’s said that your brain is most active when you feel something is “hard.” A level where you make mistakes and feel it’s “a little difficult” is just right.
At first, providing hints—like writing the multiples of 3 on a whiteboard—may help things go smoothly.
You can also do this exercise with multiples other than 3, so try different numbers.
Daily Life Quiz
Quizzes based on everyday life can be surprisingly difficult when you stop to think about them, precisely because we usually do those things without thinking.
For older adults in particular, there are more instances where they can’t recall the names of things they know, so these quizzes are effective as training to trace back memories.
And for questions that are truly unfamiliar even after hearing the answer, they stimulate the brain as new memories.
It’s a recreational activity that lets you learn while having fun and works as brain training—highly recommended for seniors, and something people of all ages should try.
[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mental Exercises (111–120)
Spring Riddles 2
How about enjoying some riddles that are perfect for spring and can even help with brain training and dementia prevention? These are riddles whose answers are spring-themed.
So if you can’t come up with an answer, it might help to give yourself the hint that it’s something related to spring.
Example riddles include: “It’s a ‘kaba’ (hippo), but what ‘kaba’ appears in spring?” and “What do you get when you gather ten ‘kabu’ (turnips)?” It could also be fun to create your own quiz using the spring theme as a constraint.
Spring Plant Quiz
When it comes to flower names, we can quickly recognize the ones we often see or that are famous, but the less common ones can be hard to identify—especially if it’s just a photo of a bud.
Here’s a quiz where you try to guess the names of such flowers.
Each question is multiple choice with three options, and all of them sound plausible, so it can be tricky.
Don’t worry about getting answers wrong—just keep tackling the questions with the goal of learning more.
Trying to remember and expanding your knowledge is one of life’s joys, so please keep that spirit no matter how old you are.