Product Description
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 puts tools and resources in the hands of professionals, caregivers, and people with early memory loss 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. The activities are fun and appropriately challenging! And just as with any good workout, the benefits increase the more you do.
Organized by themes—including Language, Geography, Creativity, Logic, and more—each section comes equipped with ready-to-use activity worksheets and corresponding answer sheets that include tips and advice for group leaders who want to extend the activity.
Revive old knowledge and stimulate new learning with games and activities such as
- Name That Tune
- Conversation Starters
- Doodling Fun
- Television, Then and Now
- Snazzy Syllables
- Scrambled Quotes
- Natural Wonders of the World
- and much more!
Useful with groups as well as one-on-one, the activities are designed to promote discussion, reminiscence, and socializing, all of which contribute to brain fitness. 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.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Information for Guides
Warm Ups
- Two Syllable Fruits and Vegetalbes
- Name Seven
- Musicals
- Getting from Here to There
- How Many Can You Name?
- Begins with M
- Word Prefixes
- Things that Come in Pairs
- Things that Spin
- Things that Melt
- What’s in Your Wallet?
- Name 10 Green Vegetables
Sharpening Your Senses
- Conversation Starters: Sense of Hearing
- Conversation Starters: Sense of Smell
- Conversation Starters: Sense of Taste
- Conversation Starters: Sense of Touch
- Conversation Starters: Sense of Sight
- Our Sense of Hearing
- Our Sense of Smell
- Our Sense of Taste
- Our Sense of Touch
- Our Sense of Sight
- What Can You Find?
- The Power of Observation—Name Three
Language
- Common Food Expressions
- Fun with Compound Words
- Jack Be Nimble—and Other Jacks!
- Often-Used Foreign-Language Phrases
- Paragraph Proofer
- Rhyming Away
- Snazzy Syllables
- Splendid Synonyms
- The Letter J
- Word Diamonds
- Word Power
- Words with Strange Plurals
Geography
- Africa Close Up
- Around the World in 16 Questions
- Canada, Oh Canada
- European Geography
- Natural Wonders of the World
- South American Geography and More
- The Last Frontier
- U.S. State Name Origins
- U.S. Travel Trivia
- Waterways of the World A-Z
- Where Would You Be If…?
- World In-Betweens
Creativity
- If I’ve Told You Once, I’ve Told You a Thousand Times!
- Alternative Endings
- Doodling Fun
- Drawing on the Mind
- How Observant Are You?
- Scrambled Quotes
- Sketch Pad
- The Great Magazine Search
- What’s in the Photo?
- Your Childhood Years
- Your Dream House
- Your Favorites
History and Culture
- All About U.S. National Parks
- Famous Couples in History
- Dancin’ the Night Away
- Famous Events in Space and Aviation
- Great Friends
- Executive Branch of the United States
- Legislative Branch of the United States
- Television, Then and Now
- U.S. Money Trivia
- What’s for Dinner?
- Who Was President?
- Women in Sports
Logic and Sequencing
- All Things Big
- All Things Small
- Directions by the Letter
- Doodling Fun
- Match the Mascot
- Put the Zip Codes in Order
- When in History?
- What Comes Next?
- What’s Left?
- Which Price Tag Is Higher?
- Which Doesn’t Belong?
- Which is Largest?
- Which is Smallest?
Music
- Celebrating Color through Songs
- Celebrating Geography through Songs
- Famous Jingles
- Name That Tune
- The Piano: An Instrument for All Ages
- Play Me a Tune!
- Scrambled Music Terms
- Songs of Years Gone By
- Which Instrument?
- Name That Musical
- Which Song Is It?
- 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 four 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., RTC/CTRS, has worked with people with cognitive impairment for the past 10 years, and specifically with people with early memory loss for the past 4 years. She developed and facilitated two social/educational programs for people with early memory loss and has also developed educational classes for caregivers.
In addition, she has taught numerous memory enhancement classes and seminars to independent seniors. Together with Kristin Einberger, she founded Memory Enhancement Services, a consulting service for people with early memory loss as well as for professionals and families.
Janelle has presented at many local, state, and national conferences, including the Alzheimer’s Association, the California Park and Recreation Society, the Brookdale Foundation, and the American Therapeutic Recreation Association. She is the author of many newsletter and magazine articles on memory loss and the author of the book Traditions: Improving Quality of Life in Caregiving. Most recently, she has partnered with Kristin Einberger to author a technical manual for the Brookdale Foundation on Creating an Early Memory Loss Program.
Administrator –
“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 functioning. This book has an array of options to consider, from questions that elicit a quick one word response, to group exercises 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 describe the benefits, 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 the 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.”
—Judy Filippoff, MSW
Director, Early Stage Services
The Alzheimer’s Association®
Northern California and Northern Nevada Chapter
Administrator –
“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.”
—Mary Cowper, The Midwest Book Review
Administrator –
“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.”
—Creative Forecasting magazine