3 Games for Adults to Improve Their Memory
Is your senior loved one beginning to show signs of forgetfulness and potential memory loss? We’ve got a couple of game suggestions and memory exercises to keep their mental muscles active and prevent them from cognitive memory loss diseases!
Board Games
Board games encompass a vast range of games instead of just one and have long been associated with lowering the onset of dementia and improving cognitive functioning and memory. With no shortage of board games available, adults can participate in numerous games to work on their strategic and creative abilities, logical thinking, and increase memory retention.
For instance, playing Risk stimulates your decision-making and problem-solving skills. Checkers and backgammon engage with your creativity, helping you make strategic moves. Scrabble diversifies your vocabulary and enables you to think abstractly. All of these games improve your brain functioning, nurturing your memory growth along the way.
Research has also shown that playing chess can contribute to reducing the likeliness of developing dementia. In one study, 469 individuals over the age of 75 were observed who initially showed no signs of memory loss and regularly engaged in mentally strenuous activities such as chess. After a course of 5 years, around 124 of them had dementia. The findings saw that senior citizens who played chess regularly were less likely to face memory loss than those who didn’t.
The Listing Game
It’s no secret; our brain likes making lists be it for grocery shopping, planning the day’s tasks, or just to kill boredom. Ever wondered why that is? While listing down things help you be more organized and structured, it also improves memory function.
List making can serve as a fun game for your senior loved ones to help keep their memory refreshed. One way to go about it is by getting a group of people together and having each of them add one item to a given list, which all players need to remember in the right order. This tests the elderly adult’s ability to recall and improves their memory. Alternatively, you can also stimulate their recall ability by having them list down the activities they engaged in on a particular day or their favorite food items.
Lumosity
Another fun game for your senior loved one to improve their memory is Lumosity. This is a digital game that provides several puzzles and mini-games which help in recollection and memory retention by triggering the brain’s problem-solving abilities and attention span.
The game can be downloaded on a tablet or a smartphone for free, and be incorporated into your senior loved one’s schedule on a daily basis.
At AvantGarde Senior Living & Memory Care, our senior residents engage in various mentally stimulating activities and games that improve their memory and cognitive functioning.
Call us at (818) 881-0055 to get in touch with our team in Studio City, and learn more about our assisted living and elderly care services!