Get ready to flex, tone, and boost the brain with Brain Flexers! Science has revealed how much our brains can grow and change in response to learning throughout life, even when a person is experiencing memory loss. Regardless of age, everyone has the ability to change their brain for the better!
This mind-stimulating book offers tools and resources to strengthen mental functioning. Targeted brain fitness activities work to exercise many areas of cognition, such as memory, attention, focus, visual-spatial processing, and sequencing. These activities are fun—and appropriately challenging! And just like any good workout, the benefits increase the more you do!
Organized by theme—Warm-ups, Sharpening Your Sense, Language, Geography, Creativity, History and Culture, Logic and Sequence, Music—each section comes equipped with ready-to-use worksheets of activities and corresponding answer sheets that include tips and advice for facilitators. From Conversation Starters to Scrambled Quotes to Doodling Fun to Natural Wonders of the World, you’ll find in this book activities, trivia, and games that entertain while stimulating the mind and sharpening the senses.
Useful with groups as well as one-on-one, the activities are also designed to promote discussion, reminiscence, and socializing—another important component to brain fitness. Brain Flexers is perfect for activity staff as well as individuals with early memory loss and their family members. Discover the laughter, conversation, and friendships that come from flexing the brain, and facilitate a positive brain workout designed for a fit and ever-changing mind.
By:
Kristin Einberger,
Janelle Sellick
Imprint: Health Professions Press,U.S.
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions:
Height: 279mm,
Width: 216mm,
Spine: 15mm
Weight: 515g
ISBN: 9781938870378
ISBN 10: 1938870379
Pages: 224
Publication Date: 30 June 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Acknowledgments Introduction Information for GuidesWarm Ups1.Two Syllable Fruits and Vegetalbes2.Name Seven3.Musicals4.Getting from Here to There5.How Many Can You Name?6.Begins with M7.Word Prefixes8.Things that Come in Pairs9.Things that Spin10.Things that Melt11.What's in Your Wallet?12.Name 10 Green VegetablesSharpening Your Senses1.Conversation Starters: Sense of Hearing2.Conversation Starters: Sense of Smell3.Conversation Starters: Sense of Taste4.Conversation Starters: Sense of Touch5.Conversation Starters: Sense of Sight6.Our Sense of Hearing7.Our Sense of Smell8.Our Sense of Taste9.Our Sense of Touch10.Our Sense of Sight11.What Can You Find?12.The Power of Observation'Name ThreeLanguage1.Common Food Expressions2.Fun with Compound Words3.Jack Be Nimble'and Other Jacks!4.Often-Used Foreign-Language Phrases5.Paragraph Proofer6.Rhyming Away7.Snazzy Syllables8.Splendid Synonyms9.The Letter J10.Word Diamonds11.Word Power12.Words with Strange PluralsGeography1.Africa Close Up2.Around the World in 16 Questions3.Canada, Oh Canada4.European Geography5.Natural Wonders of the World6.South American Geography and More7.The Last Frontier8.U.S. State Name Origins9.U.S. Travel Trivia10.Waterways of the World A-Z11.Where Would You Be If'¦?12.World In-BetweensCreativity1.If I've Told You Once, I've Told You a Thousand Times!2.Alternative Endings3.Doodling Fun4.Drawing on the Mind5.How Observant Are You?6.Scrambled Quotes7.Sketch Pad8.The Great Magazine Search9.What's in the Photo?10.Your Childhood Years11.Your Dream House12.Your FavoritesHistory and Culture1.All About U.S. National Parks2.Famous Couples in History3.Dancin' the Night Away4.Famous Events in Space and Aviation5.Great Friends6.Executive Branch of the United States7.Legislative Branch of the United States8.Television, Then and Now9.U.S. Money Trivia10.What's for Dinner?11.Who Was President?12.Women in SportsLogic and Sequencing1.All Things Big2.All Things Small3.Directions by the Letter4.Doodling Fun5.Match the Mascot6.Put the Zip Codes in Order7.When in History?8.What Comes Next?9.What's Left?10.Which Price Tag Is Higher?11.Which Doesn't Belong?12.Which is Largest?13.Which is Smallest?Music1.Celebrating Color through Songs2.Celebrating Geography through Songs3.Famous Jingles4.Name That Tune5.The Piano: An Instrument for All Ages6.Play Me a Tune!7.Scrambled Music Terms8.Songs of Years Gone By9.Which Instrument?10.Name That Musical11.Which Song Is It?12.Who Made the Song Famous?
Kristin Einberger has worked in the aging field for 35 years and has developed programs on Alzheimer’s respite, early memory loss, and brain fitness, among others. Currently she facilitates a number of brain fitness classes in a variety of settings and also facilitates various caregiver support groups. She is the co-author of a number of books dealing with early memory loss, including three published by Health Professions Press, two of which were recognized with Mature Media Awards. She has been a speaker at conferences nationwide including American Society on Aging, National Alzheimer’s Association, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, and the Brookdale Foundation. Her passion is to assist those with early memory loss in leading fulfilling lives in the most cognitively fit way possible. Janelle Sellick, M.S., has been working with older adults for more than 10 years, teaching and developing programs for people with memory loss. She currently facilitates Brain Boosters and mental fitness classes. Janelle has presented at dozens of local, state, and national conferences on topics related to memory, caregiving, and aging. She is the author of the book Traditions: Improving Quality of Life in Caregiving, and co-author of the popular Strengthen Your Mind series of activity books for people with early memory loss. She also co-authored How to Develop an Early Memory Loss Program for the Brookdale Foundation and has written articles for many local publications.
Reviews for Brain Flexers: Games and Activities to Strengthen Memory
The worksheets in Brain Flexers are perfect for activity and recreation professionals to make copies to use in a group setting or individually with residents or clients. [Also], family members can use the variety of games and activities with their loved ones with early memory loss, and use themselves. -- (03/09/2018) In Brain Flexers, Kristin Einberger and Janelle Sellick provide an easy to follow, comprehensive resource of enjoyable cognitive exercises that tap in to a diverse range of capabilities and challenges, for adults wishing to enhance mental funtioning. This book has an array of options to consider, from questions that elicit a quick one word response, to group exerciese and longer discussion points, all promoting socialization while working multiple areas of the brain. There is truly something here that will appeal to everyone. Especially appreciated are the suggestions for leaders at the beginning of each section that clearly describes the benefts, and provides hints on how to use the materials in a way that elicits the best response. If one section has a particularly robust reaction from participants, ideas for expanding on the subject matter are provided. This is a perfect tool for engaging participants with fun exercises that flex multiple areas of memory and cognition, while also promoting social engagement. -- (04/01/2015) Impressively well written, organized and presented, 'Brain Flexers: Games and Activities to Strengthen Memory' will prove to be an enduringly useful and popular addition to personal, professional, community, and academic library collections. Indeed, no senior citizen center should be without a copy of 'Brain Flexers' and it would be an invaluable addition to Alzheimer's and Adult Memory Loss supplemental studies reading lists. -- (08/19/2015)
