As dementia progresses, it impacts several areas of the brain, including those that play an important role in our ability to engage in activities and hobbies.
This can sometimes make familiar activities like painting, music, or playing games more challenging. However, both continuing to engage in hobbies and trying new activities can help stimulate areas of the brain that may be affected by cognitive decline, slowing this process and supporting cognitive health.
Creative, fun, and cognitively stimulating activities that a loved one with dementia can continue to enjoy include:
- Walking
- Gentle stretching and yoga
- Gardening
- Arts and crafts
- Music
- Board games, puzzles, and cards
Activities for Older Adults with Dementia
Different activities help engage various areas of the brain.
Engaging activities can be simple, and can always be modified to meet the unique needs of your loved one. What’s important is that your loved one is able to enjoy themselves, whether that means continuing a longstanding hobby or trying something new.
Trying new hobbies encourages neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to form new connections, helping to support cognitive health and wellness.
In addition to the cognitive benefits, the social connections developed from engaging in activities help maintain and foster social connections. This helps alleviate feelings of loneliness and isolation, often experienced as we grow older, and helps improve mood and emotional regulation.
Walking
One of the simplest yet most effective physical activities is walking.
As a low-impact activity, walking encourages increased blood circulation throughout the body, including the brain, which can help support and enhance cognitive abilities.
Walking helps with maintaining mental clarity by increasing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to brain cells, thereby stimulating multiple areas of the brain involved with memory, planning, and multitasking.
The rhythmic nature of walking supports the cerebellum, which is responsible for balance and coordination and contributes both to improved motor skills as well as to reducing the risk of falls.
Stretching & Yoga
Gentle stretching exercises and yoga can improve flexibility, balance, and muscle strength while promoting deep breathing and mindfulness, enhancing focus and mental clarity.
By reducing stress and promoting relaxation, these activities can decrease the production of stress hormones, which are known to negatively impact cognitive function. The calm and centered mental state that results from yoga and stretching fosters better mood regulation and emotional stability, which is important for individuals experiencing dementia.
Gardening
Gardening offers a unique blend of physical activity and cognitive stimulation. Its meditative and peaceful nature promotes relaxation and reduces anxiety, helping with emotional regulation.
Gardening requires planning and decision-making, such as choosing which plants to grow or determining the best location and method for planting, which activates the prefrontal cortex.
Additionally, the sensory engagement involved in gardening, through touching soil, smelling flowers, and observing changes in plant growth, stimulates the parietal lobe, helping improve sensory processing and spatial awareness.
Plus, the repetitive motions of planting and nurturing plants encourage motor function and coordination, which involves the cerebellum.
Arts & Crafts
Arts and crafts activities offer significant cognitive benefits for individuals with dementia by fostering creativity. In fact, art therapy is used in memory care as a means of stimulating cognitive function.
Engaging in creative activities like painting, drawing, knitting, or embroidery stimulates the parietal lobe, which helps process sensory information, and the occipital lobe, responsible for visual processing.
Art, crafts, music, and other activities that require hand-eye coordination and dexterous movements, activate the cerebellum and motor cortex, enhancing motor skills crucial for day-to-day tasks.
The prefrontal cortex is also stimulated when individuals plan a project or decide on colors and materials, providing excellent cognitive exercise that supports executive functioning.
These activities encourage creativity, offering a platform for self-expression and emotional release, which can be particularly beneficial for those who might verbally struggle to express themselves as their condition progresses.
Music
Music, whether played or listened to, can evoke memories and emotions.
Music activates the auditory cortex, which is responsible for processing sound, and also engages the hippocampus. The rhythmic and melodic elements of music can evoke memories, transporting individuals back to familiar times.
This also helps engage the prefrontal cortex, particularly when individuals participate in tasks like playing an instrument or following a melody. In fact, music not only supports cognitive function, but also enhances attention and problem-solving skills.
Singing or playing an instrument involves the motor cortex and cerebellum, improving coordination and fine motor skills, which are helpful for day-to-day tasks.
Emotionally, music helps regulate mood by stimulating the limbic system, which manages emotions. Listening to or engaging with music can reduce anxiety, agitation, and depression, common challenges for individuals with dementia.
The benefits of music in stimulating cognitive function are so profound that music therapy is used in memory care to help individuals with dementia.
Board Games, Puzzles, & Cards
Activities like Board games and chess require strategic thinking and decision-making, which activate the prefrontal cortex. These cognitive exercises are necessary for supporting executive functioning and maintaining mental flexibility.
Jigsaw puzzles and memory games improve visual-spatial skills by engaging the occipital and parietal lobes, which are involved in processing visual information and spatial orientation. These activities demand attention to detail and encourage pattern recognition, aiding in the development of memory retention and recall skills.
Card games and similar activities often combine elements of strategy and chance, which stimulate both the frontal and temporal lobes. The temporal lobe is vital for memory and language processing, making these games particularly beneficial for maintaining communication skills, which are impacted as dementia progresses.
Connect with Memory Care
Engaging activities are crucial in providing a fulfilling and enriching life for those with dementia. These activities stimulate the brain, boost mood, and promote a sense of community.
Memory care helps foster this sense of community. We continue to provide residents with fun, entertaining, and engaging activities designed to stimulate and promote cognitive health.
Connect with our team at All American Assisted Living in Londonderry to schedule a tour of our memory care community.
