Elder Care in Westchester, IL – Memory Games for Fun and Mental Exercise

The human mind needs exercise to stay fit and healthy, just like the body does. Elderly people need activities that stretch their mental muscles and give them a good workout to keep the thinking juices flowing. There are many games and activities centered on thinking, analyzing and remembering.

These memory games are fun to do in any setting. Whether you are a family member providing home care for elderly parents or a caregiver employed in the elderly home care field, these games will give you a fun activity to do with the senior you care for.

Memory Match

This is a classic card game played with a 52 card deck.

• Shuffle the cards and lay them all face down in a 13 x 4 grid.
• The first player chooses two cards to turn over. If they are a match, she keeps then and takes another turn. If they aren’t a match, she turns them back over.
• Now it’s the next player’s turn. He gets to turn over two cards and play continues the same.
• The strategy is that the players have to try and remember where the cards are that have been turned over.
• When all pairs have been matched, the player with the most pairs wins.

Name The Tune

• You will need recordings of songs which were popular during the senior’s youth.
• Play a short clip from the beginning of a song. All players must write down the name of the song and who wrote or sung it. If they are not sure, have them take a guess.
• After playing 10-15 different songs, call out the answers slowly enough for them to check and correct their work.
• The player with the most correct responses wins.

Memory Circle

• This game requires a group of people. They can all be seniors or can be seniors and some family members.
• Everyone sits in a circle. They take turns recounting a memory or an activity or hobby from their childhood.
• When everyone is finished, go around the circle again, this time taking turns recounting someone else’s memory they shared. Also try to remember who the person was that shared the memory.

Boggle or Scrabble

• Both of these are word games, and can be played in their board game version or using an online version.
• In boggle, a grid of random letters is generated. Players must study the grid and try to form words from the letters in the grid. Each successive letter in a word must be touching the last letter in the word.
• In scrabble, each player is given a set of randomly picked letter tiles and must use these letter tiles in combination with those already on the board to form words.

Crossword puzzles and word find games

• Crossword puzzles are good at exercising mental capacity. Crossword puzzles initiate thinking skills and also use memory to access vocabulary words needed to fill in the crossword puzzle.
• In word find games, the eye and brain must co-ordinate with each other to find where the list of words is hidden in the grid of letters provided.

For Elder Care Services in Westchester, IL call 708-761-4909. Serving La Grange, Oakbrook, Oak Brook Terrace, Brookfield, Westchester, Downers Grove, Berwyn, River Forest, Oak Park, Hinsdale, Chicago and surrounding communities.