[For Seniors] Spice Up Your Usual Oral Exercises! Patakara Exercises and Tongue Twisters

Gymnastics with a quiz

Brain-Training Oral Exercises: Say-Anything Quiz [Light Recreational Brain Training for Senior Care and Prevention]

Here’s an introduction to an oral exercise that incorporates exciting quiz elements.

The facilitator gives older adults a “target phrase” that they want them to say—no matter what the facilitator says—and they go back and forth with words.

Partway through, the facilitator deliberately says a phrase similar to the older adults’ “target,” creating a trick to trip them up.

It’s a mouth exercise that gets lively when people get caught, but that’s not all.

Realizing they were influenced by the facilitator’s words and then rebuilding the intended phrase also serves as brain training.

It’s a fun way to combine oral exercises with cognitive training, so please give it a try.

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Nakajima Junko

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If Kamepatakara Song Exercise

Why not try some mouth-area exercises to the tune of the children’s song “Usagi to Kame” (The Hare and the Tortoise), which every Japanese person has heard? It’s simple: change the lyrics “Moshi moshi kame yo” to the syllables pa-ta-ka-ra and vocalize them.

Once you get used to it and feel more comfortable, add hand claps or foot stomps.

Doing multiple movements at the same time turns it into a dual task, which can also help train your brain.

You can do it anywhere, and doing it before meals is especially effective for preventing aspiration.

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Patakara Exercises – Oyome Samba (Bride Samba)

Mouth warm-up exercise 6: Let’s sing “Oyome Samba” using the syllables pa-ta-ka-ra (with a dual-task).

Let us introduce you to the fun Patakara exercises performed to the tune of Hiromi Go’s classic hit “Oyome Samba.” Strengthening the mouth muscles improves your ability to swallow food and helps prevent aspiration.

First, sing the song normally to check the music and rhythm.

From the second verse, replace the lyrics with the syllables “pa-ta-ka-ra.” If you can manage it, move your hands in rock–paper–scissors (fist, scissors, open hand) at the same time; doing multiple actions simultaneously can also provide brain-training benefits.

Aim to do this at least once a day.

It’s especially recommended before meals.

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kojifumi

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Upward Patakara Exercise

Boost your swallowing power dramatically! Upward-facing Patakara exercises – Oral Care Channel 542 (Oral Care Channel 2 #215)

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.

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Exercise to the Sazae-san theme song

Oral and swallowing exercises [for day-service care facilities and at-home preventive care]

In this video, we do oral exercises to a familiar song.

Even though they’re called exercises, it’s important not to start moving your body abruptly.

Just like Radio Calisthenics, begin with deep breathing, then rotate your neck forward, backward, and side to side, raise and lower your shoulders, and move on to exercises for the tongue and around the mouth.

Moving the tongue and massaging the cheeks and neck helps stimulate saliva, which makes chewing and swallowing smoother and helps prevent aspiration.

For the familiar song this time, we’re using the opening theme from the TV anime Sazae-san, which has been airing for over 50 years.

Many of you probably know it, so give it a try!

Gymnastics to the song “Antagata Dokosa”

[Oral Exercises for Seniors] Super Funny and Fun: Antagata Dokosa

Let’s try doing oral exercises with the children’s song “Antagata Dokosa”! It should be easy for older adults to engage with since it’s a familiar tune.

Change every “sa” in the lyrics to “pa,” add hand claps, and open your hands wide as you go.

Pronouncing “pa” with the lips firmly closed helps prevent food spillage and drooling.

Some older adults may be hesitant to do oral exercises while singing at first.

It’s fine to do it within a comfortable range—such as together with a few other older adults—so please enjoy giving it a try.

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Nakajima Junko

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A-I-U-Be Classic Exercise

[Recommended for Autumn and Winter: Mouth Exercises] A-I-U-Be Exercises × Classical — Gymnopédie Chill MIX ♪ Infection Prevention Measures / Exercises for Older Adults

Let’s add a touch of classical music to the “AIUEBE” mouth exercise used to help prevent colds and influenza.

You can use a slow, gentle melody like Gymnopédies, or a classical piece that older adults enjoy.

Doing the exercise to one’s favorite classical music makes it more enjoyable for seniors, too.

Move your mouth widely to the melody—“a, i, u, be”—and stick your tongue out and lower it.

This exercise is especially recommended in dry seasons like autumn and winter.

Give it a try!

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Nakajima Junko

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