[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.
- [For Seniors] Fun and Engaging Brain-Training Recreation
- [For Seniors] Guaranteed to Liven Things Up! A Collection of Brain Training Activities That Will Spark Laughter
- [For Seniors] A Brain-Training, Crowd-Pleasing Word Search Game
- [Brain Training for Seniors] Recommended Hand-Play Recreation for Dementia Prevention
- [For Seniors] Brain Training Recommended for Dementia Prevention
- Fun Brain Training! Memory Games for Seniors
- [For Seniors] Brain-Training Recreation Using a Whiteboard
- Simple games for preventing and improving dementia
- [For Seniors] Find daily brain training. Today’s recommended brain workout.
- [For seniors] Fun brain training! Let’s get excited with the “Aru-Nashi” quiz
- 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! Lively Mental Exercises (111–120)
Flying Insect Quiz
Here’s a quiz where you guess which insects can fly.
The idea itself is fascinating, isn’t it? Three insects appear at a time, but there isn’t always just one correct answer, and it’s interesting that some unexpected insects can or can’t fly.
Plus, the English names of the insects are shown, so you can learn them at the same time, which seems like great brain training.
If you become curious about the names or habits of insects you didn’t know, I also recommend looking them up.
It’s a quiz that’s useful in many ways, isn’t it?
[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Exciting Mental Exercises (121–130)
Just paper and pen! Number Bingo
It’s a simple game where you use a pencil to draw a grid and numbers on paper, then aim for bingo.
The grid is 3 squares by 3 squares, for a total of 9, and you freely choose numbers from 1 to 15 to fill them in at random.
Once everyone has finished writing their numbers, you’re ready to play: read out the numbers on the cards in order, and each player aims for bingo.
You can enjoy seeing whether a line on your own card completes, or you can turn it into a competitive game where you try to complete more lines than your opponent—either way, it’s sure to be exciting.
Picture matching cards
It’s a simple card game where the goal is to match the illustrations drawn on the backs of the cards.
To keep players from guessing what’s on the back, make sure the fronts are the same color and shape.
Any illustrations are fine as long as they form pairs, but having a theme—like “Fruits”—adds excitement as players anticipate what kinds of images might be included.
Increasing the number of cards raises the difficulty, so it’s best to adjust the deck size to suit the number of participants.
Color Card Matching Game
This is a game where you collect the specified colors from among cards painted on cardboard or construction paper and stack them in front of you.
The key point is that only the backs of the cards are colored, so encourage players to focus on the finger movements used to check colors and on remembering the placement of the cards.
The more color types and cards there are, the higher the difficulty, so once everyone gets used to it, gradually increasing the number should make it even more exciting.
It sounds fun not only with rules where individuals compete on speed, but also with cooperative rules where two people facing each other complete two sets together.
Memory Challenge
This is a memory challenge where participants quickly memorize illustrations drawn on paper or a board.
Within a limited time, they remember each illustration one by one.
When time is up, have them say aloud what they saw or write it down.
Repeating the same set multiple times to improve accuracy also serves as brain training.
You can adjust the difficulty by giving hints like “Let’s find what the illustrations have in common!” Why not try using this as a quiz activity in settings such as day services where older adults gather?
Strawberry Quiz
Strawberries are a familiar food, but there may be more you don’t know about them than you think.
For example—this often shows up in quiz questions—it’s said that people in Japan began eating them in the late Edo period; each of the tiny seeds on the surface is actually a fruit; and strawberries are, in fact, vegetables rather than fruit.
Surprising, isn’t it? Try this quiz and boost your strawberry trivia.
Absorbing all kinds of knowledge might just help you stay youthful.
What’s inside the box? Daruma.
Daruma dolls, known as good luck charms, are mostly made of wood and all have a smooth feel, don’t they? Among many objects that share that smooth sensation, let’s guide people to arrive at “daruma” through the way we give hints.
After they identify its distinctive shape—round overall with an indentation—you can combine that with hints like “a red good luck charm” to help them think of the answer.
Words like “draw the eyes,” “election,” and “fall over” might also work as hints.