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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 23 May 2020

Amrita Patil Pimpale, dementia care consultant, gives some valuable tips and exercises for senior citizens to stimulate the brain and sharpen mental capacities.

Older adults were considered to be vulnerable to Covid-19 infection. That is why they needed to follow stricter rule of physical distancing. These unusual changes in the lifestyle of a senior citizen means that they need more deliberate, disciplined activities to strengthen their physical and mental capacities.

Use it or lose it - a saying we all have heard about. What if it applies to one of our most important muscles of the body - the Brain.If you don't strengthen and stretch its capacities, it will not deliver high performance. Research suggests that there is lot you can do to keep your brain fit and reduce the risk of brain disease.

Keeping mind sharp 

We must keep sharpening our skills, practice with what we have and upgrade our knowledge.

We usually get many opportunities throughout the day to stimulate our brain. However, we are going to look at some activities, exercises that seniors can incorporate in their daily routine, to improve the different functions of the brain. Various brain exercises are making their way in our routine now, as we see benefits of doing crosswords, puzzles, craft activities, etc.

A recent research published in the Journal of Neurology states that Engaging in a higher number of mentally stimulating activities, particularly in late life, is associated with a decreased risk of MCI (mild cognitive impairment) among older persons. The research also emphasises on variety of activities like reading, working on computer, social activities and craft.

It is recommended that one should do variety of activities that can stimulate different brain functions.Like working on improving comprehension, visual perception related puzzles, calculation exercises.

  • For comprehension, one can try their hand at creative writing, writing short stories, Haikus which are short poems comprising on 2-4 phrases. Crosswords, word search activities are beneficial for working on vocabulary skills.
  • Visual perception activities are helpful to organize, interpret the information we come across in our daily routine. Activities involving finding object, working with shapes, patterns are useful to develop visual perception skills. For example following activity, where you have to find exact matching symbols in the grid in given time.

  • Say no to Calculator: Another good activity to include in daily routine is to work on your calculation skills. In our daily life we come across many instances where we have to use simple math for bank related work, exchange of currencies. However, what is important in taking deliberate efforts to exercise our brain hence, one must take out time to solve calculation exercises, avoid use of calculator, work on your speed to solve even simple maths equations.
     
  • Similarly, Memory game can be created by using playing cards with match the pair.By mixing up the cards, laying them in rowsface down.You have to turn over any two cards.If the two cards match, keep them.If they don't match, turn them back over.Here trick is to remember what was on each card and where it was.
     
  • Art therapy: According to the American Art Therapy Association, art activities can help improve cognitive and sensor-motor functions, foster self-esteem and self-awareness, cultivate emotional resilience, promote insight and enhance social skills. Art helps you to do all those things and it relaxes you, decreases your anxiety at the same time as giving you another way to express your emotions.
     
  • Craft activities are highly recommended for seniors, especially in their late life. For art,one can try Origami activities, creating products like a dreamcatcher, candle stand from waste.

Be consistent with activities

There are range of mentally stimulating activities available as per ones interest and ability. However, what is crucial is to be consistent with these activities. One must spend 15mins to 30mins every day or every alternate day to work on these activities, at the same time keeping in mind importance of diversity of activities. To make this happen, try to set up a time in your regular routine to practice these activities. Make sure that you are distraction free, so maybe keep you phone in other room during your brain workout.

Get a buddy

Similar to physical exercise, cognitive training may work even better when done with other people. It could be your family member, friend on video chat. Having a buddy makes activities enjoyable, one tends to put in more efforts in practicing these activities. You can join online cognitive training sessions curated for seniors. These regular sessions can help you stay consistent with your cognitive training program.

We host weekly online sessions (paid) of curated cognitive activities for seniors in small group. Trained therapist conduct sessions with Seniors, where they work on enhancing attention, perception,comprehension and memory. Variety of activities like language exercises and activities, reasoning activities, Orientation activities are developed for seniors.

While physical distancing is to ensure that our seniors are protected from infection, researchers also warn that resulting social isolation, loneliness can worsen our senior population’s health. In fact, research suggests loneliness and prolonged isolation can have negative effects on your health, more even than smoking 15 cigarettes per day.

Do remember at a time of physical distancing it is more important than ever to keep our seniors connected socially.

Amrita Patil Pimpale is founder of Echoing Healthy Ageing, a social enterprise working for geriatric population in India. They offer paid group and individual cognitive training sessions for Seniors in Mumbai. During the lockdown, they are offering paid online cognitive training sessions for seniors, in different Indian languages.

PE Tip: There are many organisations now offering a variety of paid and free resources and online events for older persons. Some of these include PDMDS, Samvedna Senior Care.   

 

Note: While this article was originally written during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, it has been edited to reflect the extended pandemic situation.