[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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[For Seniors] Fun Brain Training! Lively Mental Exercises (21–30)
Shadow Play Story: Silhouette Quiz
It’s a silhouette quiz where you look at shadow pictures and guess what they are.
Many of the questions can be identified at a glance, making it easy for children and seniors to enjoy.
Is the theme sports? It looks like it features equipment used in sports that everyone knows well.
Since we usually recognize things in color, we can get thrown off when they’re in black and white, but if you stay calm and think it through, the answer should come into view.
Pay close attention to the finer details of the silhouettes and try to figure out the answers.
Letter rearrangement game
I’m sure there are many facilities that want to actively incorporate brain training.
However, we want to avoid brain training that older adults feel reluctant to do.
So how about trying a “letter rearrangement game”? Rearrange scattered hiragana to form words that have proper meaning.
Start simple with fewer characters, and gradually increase the number of characters.
Even if someone makes a small mistake while rearranging, the unexpected answer can be funny and spark laughter.
Change calculation
This is a simple problem where you calculate how much change you’ll get after shopping with the money you have.
Using the theme of shopping makes the problem feel familiar, and it may be easier for many people to answer.
It combines basic addition and subtraction, emphasizing speed from question to answer to keep the mind engaged.
The smaller and more detailed the amounts, the higher the difficulty, so it’s recommended to adjust the challenge while checking the participant’s calculation skills.
Place Name Brain Training
Geography Brain Training is a game where you can have a lively time together while giving your brain a workout.
Players take turns naming place names that match a given theme, and anyone who can’t answer drops out.
Be careful not to make the theme too difficult, or it can kill the motivation.
If participants are from different regions, it’s best to choose place names that everyone is likely to know, such as the 23 wards of Tokyo.
Alternatively, you can have players name prefectures.
Kanji quiz with the fish radical
Here are some ideas for a tricky quiz on kanji with the “fish” radical.
The exact count varies depending on the dictionary and what you include, but it seems there are actually more than 200 such characters.
We might think we know the kanji for fish that commonly appear on the dining table, but if you don’t fish or work with fish, many of them can be quite difficult.
For example, there’s a quiz with 25 questions where a fish-radical kanji is shown and you’re asked, “How do you read this kanji?” The questions get more difficult in the latter half, but it really piques your curiosity.
PET bottle cap puzzle
Let’s have fun with a puzzle game you can make using plastic bottle caps! Prepare a sheet of paper divided into a 3×3 grid and nine plastic bottle caps, then draw the same letters or shapes on both the paper and the caps.
Once you’re done, place each cap according to the numbers or designs in the squares.
Can you place them all without making a mistake? Mixing in similar-looking designs or letters can also help train cognitive skills.
Since it’s a handmade game rather than a store-bought one, feel free to enjoy it with your own tweaks, like increasing the number of pieces.
Magical Banana
Let your imagination grow from the prompt and give your answers! Here are some ideas for the game “Magical Banana.” It’s a simple game where you chant “Magical Banana,” clap your hands, and keep making associations.
Try to avoid using the same words as much as possible, and take on the challenge with a slow rhythm.
For example, if the person sitting in front of you says, “When you say banana, I think fruit,” you would answer, “When you say fruit, I think apple,” and then the next person might say, “When you say apple, I think red,” and so on, as the prompt changes and goes around.
Give it a try while expanding your imagination!