Activities for

Geriatric Patients

This e-book collects some of the most popular activities discussed

by Jennifer Kay-Williams, MA, CCC-SLP, in her ADVANCE blog,

“Focus on Geriatric and Adult Services.”

Jennifer uses activities in therapy as a

creative way to address attention,

memory, problem-solving,

expressive language and other

issues. You can adjust the level of

difficulty of each task to a

patient’s ability.

ContentsReminisce over Post Cards

Relax with Music

Paint for Fun

Garden and Gab

Name That Tune

Newspaper Activities

Sorting Tasks

For Holidays and Every Day

For more ideas, read Jennifer’s blog at www.advanceweb.com/SPGeriatricBlog.

Look at and talk about post cards, travel guides and photographs to target attention, short-term memory, descriptive concepts, categorizing, past memory/reminiscing, problem-solving and expressive language at a variety of levels.

Local post cards are a great way to target memory and language skills via reminiscence tasks. Patients love to talk about local attractions they are familiar with.

Post cards from elsewhere may facilitate communication about favorite vacations or descriptions of the pictures.

Post cards can be kept in mini photo albums and organized by theme or place.

Reminisce over Post Cards

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Singing activities help patients relax and produce more words, phrases and sentences in songs, even those who are struggling to communicate years post-stroke.

Patients who are nonverbal or in the late stages of dementia can smile, hum, wave their hands, or move their bodies with the music. Music can stimulate memories in some patients.

When visiting church groups and music groups perform, patients love to sing or hum along.

Consider a variety of therapy activities that include music and song. Good resources are Melodic Intonation Therapy (www.healthline.com/galecontent/melodic-intonation-therapy) and Early Aphasia Therapy for the Clinic and Home, by Emily Pietz Porter, which includes songs familiar to many seniors and target phrases sung with the patient to foster production of functional communication and greetings.

Relax with Music

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Painting is a great activity for higher-level patients. Discuss where to start a painting and how to progress, problem-solving along the way. Allow two to three sessions to complete a painting.

Some patients will need more assistance and may only be able to fill in large areas of color. Reassure them that the activity is for fun so they don’t get frustrated.

Higher-level patients can work on color-mixing, while lower-level patients will require pre-mixed or primary colors. Incorporate set-up and clean-up into the session.

Therapy goals may include descriptive language, problem-solving, sequencing, attention to task, receptive language, following directions, conversational speech for articulation/intelligibility and expressive/receptive language, offering opinions, and expressing preferences.

Paint for Fun

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This activity can be as basic as planting seeds and watering plants. Geriatric residents get very excited watching plants grow.

Provide seasonal flowers so patients can make centerpieces for the dining room, a holiday party or their own room.

Flower arranging with artificial flowers is a fun alternative, and the flowers can be reused.

While having fun, you can address descriptive language, attention to task, conversational speech, offering opinions, and expressing preferences.

Garden and Gab

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Play snippets of a song, and ask residents to guess the title and artist.

Provide a stack of CDs from different eras and genres, and let patients take turns selecting the music for an activity.

Avoid pop culture references to new songs and movies that patients aren’t familiar with if they become confused or hurt when caregivers use them. They may feel they are being laughed at.

But don’t assume that all patients are not interested. Some have embraced modern music, computers and video games and enjoy trying new things.

Name That Tune

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Use newspaper articles for memory tasks. Read advice columns and letters to the editor to talk about opinions and formulate expressive language.

Comic strips are great for addressing interpretation of humor, pragmatic skills, expressing opinions and reading skills.

Magazines also can be used to address communication tasks. Find magazines that address a patient’s interests, and use them in therapy activities.

Cut out pictures from magazines to make themed collages with patients, such as favorite foods or animals.

Newspaper Activities

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Patients with decreased cognitive skills enjoy sorting tasks.

Coupons can be used in problem-solving and money management tasks. Patients can sort coupons into categories, or the therapist can make a grocery list and ask patients to look for coupons for the items on the list.

Keep a plastic box of old jewelry on hand that includes large clip-on earrings, bracelets and chunky beaded necklaces. (Chains tend to get tangled.) Patients can decide which earrings match a necklace or bracelet.

Fishing lures also can be used for a sorting task. Remove the hooks and have patients organize the lures in an inexpensive tackle box.

Other objects that lend themselves to sorting tasks are tools, kitchen items, clothes, playing cards, picture cards, shapes and utensils.

Sorting Tasks

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Many simple, meaningful activities can address cognitive-linguistic and communication goals on holidays and throughout the year.

Have patients fill “goody bags” for staff, family members and other residents around holidays. They can write greeting cards or post cards to send to family or give to other residents.

Create collages that have a holiday theme or involve family, animals or pets, historical eras and events, hobbies, etc.

Patients may enjoy putting icing on store-bought cookies or making sandwiches or smoothies. Check for dietary restrictions. The kitchen at your facility may provide many of the ingredients.

For Holidays and Every Day

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