Playing games is an ageless activity that makes being together fun and sharpens your mind. Printable brain games for seniors provide hours of entertainment for themselves and others. More importantly, researchers have found that brain training games play a strong role in improving cognitive functions. Games won’t prevent dementia or the natural effects of aging, but they can sharpen senior’s intellect, help them feel alert, and enjoy socialization.
Games stimulate your brain and they provide a healthy, wholesome activity for seniors to occupy their time and enjoy life. Board games, puzzles, and playing cards challenge the mind and keep it active. Most fun brain games for seniors don’t involve much physical activity, so they make good activities for seniors that have mobility issues.
Brain Games Are Key for the Elderly
In addition to enjoying senior citizen’s brain games, playing games with family and friends has been shown to enhance the use of visualization and sequencing and improve concentration and memory functions. As an added bonus, brain games for adults help to stimulate the immune system.
Brain games for the elderly give them opportunities to socialize with others and enjoy good conversation and a few laughs. Games for seniors help to alleviate boredom and prevent the depression that often accompanies loneliness.
It’s common to hear about the importance of eating well and keeping fit for people enjoying the later stages of life. While it’s important to pay attention to the body, it’s also important to exercise the brain. An active brain helps to reduce the effect of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. People that help to care for people living with Alzheimer’s disease find that easy brain games for seniors give the brain a good workout and improve clarity of thought. Math problems, critical thinking exercises, and games for seniors help seniors improve memory and concentration.
Best Brain Games for Seniors
Word games and printable brain games for seniors are easy to find and they are even easier to use. Games for seniors offer a means of self-care which helps to diminish the effects of dementia and help seniors enjoy a better quality of life.
Choose from these and other brain games or cognitive activities for seniors:
- Adult coloring books or pages with simple images
- Word search puzzles
- Origami
- Poetry
- Board games
- Creative writing
Card Games for Brain Health
Improving brain health is as simple as pulling out all the cards in the deck. Card games can help to keep people feeling young and staying in the game. Those are silly plays on words, but experts agree that playing card games improves short-term and long-term memory and keeps it sharp well into retirement.
Choose a card game that matches the level of difficulty that seniors can manage and enjoy. The following card games will give you some good choices:
- Bridge
- Go Fish
- Gin Rummy
- Poker
- Blackjack
- Solitaire
- Cribbage
- Canasta
- Skip-Bo
With the exception of Solitaire, the card games listed require at least two or more people. Socialization is another activity that helps to promote improved brain activity and emotional health.
Other Brain Games that Help Other Adults to Stay Focus
Board games and other thinking games also help to reduce the effects of dementia. A study showed that board games also help to reduce depression as well as improve cognition.
Here are some board games that seniors enjoy playing with their children, grandchildren, and other seniors:
- Checkers
- Chess
- Chinese Checkers
- Dominos
- Bingo
- Majong
- Mancala
- Backgammon
- Scrabble
- Crossword puzzles
- Soduko
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Brain-teasers
- Word searches
- Jokes and riddles
Playing games won’t improve a senior’s cognitive ability beyond what they had before the onset of aging. Card games and board games won’t prevent dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, or any other illnesses or effects of aging, but they can be a part of a well-balanced lifestyle, which enhances the quality of life.
When choosing card games and board games for seniors, choose them wisely. You may need to experiment some to find games that are challenging but not frustrating for them. Choose some simpler puzzles at first and increase the difficulty and number of pieces as seniors have some successes.
It’s fairly easy to find word games that are downloadable and printable. Many of them are also free. It’s also easy to pick up new or used board games and card games for a low cost.
Mental, emotional, and physical decline due to aging is taxing on seniors and the family members that love them. We provide Certified caregivers to assist you with your loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s. Our caregivers will choose appropriate games to help improved brain health and cognition. Contact Us Now for a free consultation!
