[For Older Adults] Games to Enhance Oral Function: Enjoyable and Easy to Do
Oral functions play an important role in daily life, such as eating and speaking.
We all want to keep enjoying meals and conversations as we get older.
In this article, we’ll introduce fun and easy activities that help improve oral function.
For example, are you familiar with vowel articulation practice like “a-i-u-e-o”?
It’s a simple and enjoyable articulation exercise, and in fact, it not only enhances oral function but also helps strengthen your abdominal muscles.
We also introduce exercises that are essential for health management, so please try to find some that you feel you can do!
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- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
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- [For Seniors] Fun! Games and Ideas to Boost Memory
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- [Recommended for Seniors] Simple and Fun Gesture Game Prompts
[For Older Adults] Games to Enhance Oral Function: Enjoyable Activities (11–20)
Patakara Zoo
Introducing the idea for the Patakara Exercise: the Patakara Zoo, where you sing animal names that include the syllables “pa,” “ta,” “ka,” and “ra” to a simple melody.
As you sing names like panda, tanuki (raccoon dog), crow, and lion, you imitate their sounds and characteristics, making it easy to smile and have fun.
It can be done seated in a chair, right where you are, so it doesn’t require a special space.
It’s also recommended as a recreation activity in senior facilities.
Please give it a try!
Patakara Oral Exercise: Heaven and Hell
Here’s an idea for a Patakara exercise set to the familiar “Orpheus in the Underworld” music often heard at sports festivals.
Although the piece has no lyrics, try pronouncing “pa ta ka ra” by going through the syllables: pa pi pu pe po, ta chi tsu te to, ka ki ku ke ko, ra ri ru re ro in time with the music.
Once you get used to it, speeding up the tempo can make it more fun.
Since this is a tune many people recognize, even first-timers should be able to do it smoothly.
Doing the exercise before meals can enhance its benefits, so in senior care facilities, please be mindful of the timing.
Patakara Song: Spring Has Come
Why not try training your chewing and swallowing abilities to the familiar children’s song “Haru ga Kita” (Spring Has Come)? It’s simple: just replace the lyrics of the well-known song with the syllables pa-ta-ka-ra and sing them out loud.
You can do it anywhere, without worrying about the location.
In senior care facilities, it’s helpful for staff to demonstrate the method so no one is unsure how to do it.
Doing the exercise before meals can better prevent aspiration, so if you explain the purpose and benefits in advance, participants are likely to join more actively.
Upward Patakara Exercise
When your swallowing ability declines, you’re more likely to choke, and food or saliva can more easily enter the airway by mistake.
If this leads to pneumonia, it can have a major impact on your health.
To help prevent such aspiration, we’d like to introduce the “Upward Patakara Exercise,” which strengthens your swallowing ability.
It’s very simple: just pronounce “pa-ta-ka-ra” while looking up.
Doing only this can strengthen the muscles around the mouth and help maintain and improve your swallowing function.
Doing it before meals helps prepare your mouth, and continuing daily can make it even more effective.
Patakara exercises with the song ‘Back-to-Back Height Comparison’
Here’s an idea for mouth exercises using the well-known children’s song “Sekkura-be.” It’s very simple: just change the song’s lyrics to the sounds pa-ta-ka-ra and sing them out loud.
If you’re doing this in a senior care facility, it may be easier to first sing the original song once and then switch to pa-ta-ka-ra.
It’s also helpful to write the lyrics on a whiteboard or print them on paper so everyone can see them.
Doing this before meals can be especially effective in preventing choking, and practicing every day can lead to even better results.
Please give it a try!
Patakara exercises with insect sounds
Here’s an idea for doing the Patakara mouth exercises to the tune of the well-known Japanese children’s song “Mushi no Koe” (Voices of Insects).
It’s simple: replace the insect names with “Pata-insect” and “Kara-insect,” and change their chirping sounds to “pata-pata” and “kara-kara” as you sing.
Many older adults are familiar with this short song, so it’s easy to try.
You don’t even need accompaniment—using a tablet or similar device lets you do it anywhere.
Enhancing oral function can also help prevent cognitive decline, so please try it proactively.
It’s especially effective when done before meals.
[For Older Adults] Games to Enhance Oral Functions: Enjoyable Activities (21–30)
This kid had a hard time writing katakana, didn’t they? I wonder if they didn’t cry?
“Kono ko nakanaka katakana kakenakatta na, nakakanakatta kana?” is quite a long tongue twister.
Are they worried that the child who couldn’t write katakana didn’t end up crying? Words with similar sounds like nakanaka and katakana run together almost like a reverse reading.
Plus, the repeated ka sounds create a string of identical syllables, which adds to the difficulty of reading.
Tongue twisters can make you rush, but the key is to stay calm and read through without hurrying.
