[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!
- [For Seniors] Spice Up Your Usual Oral Exercises! Patakara Exercises and Tongue Twisters
- [For Seniors] Boost Oral Function with Tongue Twisters! Recommended Picks to Try
- For seniors: Fun shiritori—enjoyable and easy to play
- [For Seniors] Stay Healthy Through Your Mouth with the A-I-U-BE Exercises!
- [For Seniors] Recommended Easy Strength Training
- [For Seniors] Oral Exercises to Keep Eating Deliciously and Enjoyably
- [For Seniors] Lively Wordplay Game: Fun Recreation for Elderly Care
- [For Seniors] Hand and finger play roundup: Finger exercises that lead to brain training
- [For Seniors] Core Training: Recommended Simple Rehabilitation
- For Seniors: Effective Recreation for Preventing Care Needs—Have Fun While Staying Healthy
- [For Seniors] Fun! Games and Ideas to Boost Memory
- [For Seniors] Extremely Effective Brain Training! A Fun Collection of Hand Games
- [Recommended for Seniors] Simple and Fun Gesture Game Prompts
[For Seniors] Games to Enhance Oral Function: Enjoyable Activities (31–40)
Core training to improve swallowing function
In senior care and welfare facilities, I imagine you conduct daily exercises and training to improve swallowing function.
This time, let’s add a twist to your usual routine using a bath towel.
We’ll use a bath towel to strengthen the core.
By strengthening the core, posture becomes more stable, making swallowing safer.
Lie on your back with a bath towel rolled up like a rod placed along your spine.
Raise your arms and lift your legs.
The key is to focus on engaging your abdominal muscles.
Please adjust the intensity to suit older adults and keep it within a comfortable, safe range.
voice training
The trachea used for swallowing and vocalizing is the same.
In addition to swallow training, incorporating vocalization can indirectly strengthen the throat.
So this time, we’ll introduce voice-based exercises.
Key points include engaging your core while exhaling and releasing tension in your shoulders and neck as you produce sound.
Practice making loud and soft sounds, and sustain your voice for longer periods.
With continued training, you can expect improvements such as changes in voice quality and easier voice production.
You might also try adding practice with words and sentences.
Paper cup launching training
This is a simple oral motor exercise using paper cups.
Place a basket on the table and hold two stacked paper cups in your hand.
Blow air to launch the top cup and try to land it in the basket.
It’s important not only to blow strongly, but also to shape your lips—like pursing them—to control the airflow.
You can enjoy it as a game with a small group or multiple people.
Besides aiming for the basket, you can also see how far you can make the cup fly.
Give it a try to help keep your mouth healthy.
Exercises to improve tongue and throat movements
To improve swallowing function, training the throat and tongue can be effective.
Strengthening the muscles around the throat helps build swallowing power.
Tongue exercises are said to stimulate the salivary glands around the mouth, making it easier to produce saliva.
Please vocalize words that require large tongue movements or allow you to feel the movement of your throat.
While vocalizing, try to keep your jaw from moving by placing your hands on your cheeks, and be mindful of engaging your abdomen.
Incorporate these into your daily exercise routine to enhance your swallowing function.
Patakara exercises in a spring brook
We’d like to introduce the Patakara exercise that you do while singing.
By pronouncing “pa,” “ta,” “ka,” and “ra,” the Patakara exercise helps train the muscles around the mouth and the tongue.
Some facilities have already incorporated it into their daily exercise routines.
Using a familiar song for older adults, such as “Spring Brook,” makes it easier for them to engage in the exercise.
“Spring Brook” has a gentle melody, making it especially suitable.
Choosing songs that reflect the season can also help older adults feel the change of seasons.
Why not try adding it to your usual exercise routine?
[For Older Adults] Games to Improve Oral Function: Enjoyable Activities (41–50)
Gokkun training
Here is a training exercise to strengthen the digastric muscles at the base of the jaw.
Also nicknamed the “gulping muscles,” training the digastric muscles lifts the Adam’s apple.
When the Adam’s apple rises, it helps prevent aspiration.
Take a sip of water and, as you swallow, engage your digastric muscles.
Try swallowing while touching your digastric muscles and your Adam’s apple with your hands to stay aware of them.
Repeat several times; the key is to swallow firmly enough that you feel fatigue under your chin.
PET bottle blowing
The function of recognizing food and then moving it through the mouth and down into the stomach is called eating and swallowing function.
This time, we’ll introduce a training method that can help improve this function.
All you need is a plastic bottle.
It’s called the plastic bottle blowing exercise: you exhale through a straw into a plastic bottle filled with water to make bubbles.
This technique is well known, but we’ll add a bit of resistance.
Make a hole near the top of the bottle and insert the straw through it.
By adjusting how tightly you screw on the cap, you can change the resistance when you bubble.
This lets you not only apply a constant force but also modulate the force.
It’s a worthwhile challenge for older adults, too.
In conclusion
This time, we introduced exercises and activities related to oral functions.
They included not only tongue and throat exercises, but also whole-body movements.
Did you find any that seem doable? It’s great to start with something fun, like rhythmic exercises or game-like activities! You’ll feel the benefits as you keep it up!