Lovely senior life

[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mind Exercises

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.

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 Brain Training! Exciting Mental Exercises (101–110)

Animal sound brain training

[Whiteboard Brain Training] See and react! Answer with the animal sounds. Difficulty ★★★ Senior Recreation

Animal sound brain training

It’s a game where you read the written name of an animal, think about which sound that animal makes, and answer.

It tests your ability to connect memories—how quickly you can imagine the sound from the animal’s name.

Start by checking which animal makes which sound, then move on to the letter chart.

Because you can reach the answer by thinking carefully, it’s also important to be mindful of speed.

The process of thinking from the written word and then saying it aloud helps activate the brain.

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Word Bingo!

[Dementia Prevention] Bingo with Words! — The “Words Starting with ‘Ka’” Edition — Also recommended as a recreation activity for day service centers!

Word Bingo!

Let’s enjoy a wordplay-based bingo game called Word Bingo! The bingo card has 9 squares, and you fill them with words that match a given theme.

For example, if the theme is “words that start with ‘ka,’” you fill the squares with words that begin with ‘ka’ that you can think of.

When the representative announces their nine ‘ka’ words, check whether any of them match the words on your card; if they do, mark them.

You win when you complete a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

A great thing about this bingo is that it’s fun for large groups.

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Let’s find words within a word.

Recreation for seniors: super easy and fun brain training even during the COVID-19 pandemic! Word-search game

Let's find words within a word.

I’d like to introduce a game where everyone can play at the same time and get excited: a “find words inside a word” game.

In this game, you rearrange or extract letters from a given target word and see how many other words you can make.

For example, if the target is “とうもろこし” (corn), you can make words like “うし” (cow) or “しも” (frost).

Decide on a target word and a time limit, and you can compete to see who can find the most words.

You can also share with each other, saying, “Here are the words I found.”

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palindrome

Brain Training Quiz, No. 21: Palindrome (1)

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.

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Let’s look up and walk with finger exercises

Finger exercise brain training with “Ue o Muite Arukō” @cuore-libero

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.

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