No matter what age or capacity your elderly is currently in, doing fun activities are highly encouraged by health care practitioners. This is done to make sure that the elderly senior receives a substantial amount of mind and body stimulation needed to ensure healthy and positive outlook in life. Some of the most successful assisted-living facilities for seniors provide daily activities for their residents to help them cope with what they are going through at the moment.
However, not all elderly seniors live in these facilities and a huge fraction of them prefer to be taken cared of at home. This practice, of course, is not closely supervised by experienced health care provider hence first-time caregivers can sometimes be lost with what should be given to their seniors. Here are some great activities you can introduce to your elderly senior to be able to comply with their mind-body stimulation needs:
· Introduce new gadgets for them to try. If your senior is interested in photography, let him try digital cameras that are not too complicated to use. There are digital camera models which are called as “point and shoot”. They are designed for simple camera operations and usually they come in no more than the shoot button. Furthermore, a nice, compact photo printer will also amuse them, guaranteeing months of fixed fascination!
· Memories are very important for elderly seniors. Introduce them to the wonderful world of scrapbooking. This also helps with the hand-eye coordination plus it encourages mental stimulation too.
· Don’t forget to do some physical exercises too as it is known to somewhat delay the aging process. If your elderly senior is not capable of moving around, it is best to have him undergo therapy sessions on a regular basis.
· Choose mental stimulating toys you can set up for seniors. Board games like chess and scrabble are great for passing time while bonding with them. On the other hand, frail seniors can also benefit from toddler toys designed to encourage hand-eye coordination.
· Consider stimulating other senses. Sometimes, hand-eye coordination cannot be established anymore. What you can do instead is to make use of the remaining senses your senior may have. Music can also stimulate a frail senior’s mind. Audio books are also available for seniors who are no longer capable of reading texts but are still interested in hearing one.
· Encourage family members to visit them once in a while especially those little ones. According to studies, babies and toddlers extend youth and vitality to seniors making them adapt these qualities while together. If this is not possible, pets will do.