There are many people around the world that are suffering from dementia, and it is common among older people that have Alzheimer’s disease, another debilitating illness that deteriorates a person’s ability to think, recognize, memorize, and remember. According to the World Health Organization, dementia is the seventh leading cause of death among humans worldwide, and there are about 10 million cases of dementia reported every year. [1]
Although there is currently no known cure for dementia and Alzheimer’s, there are methods that can be used to slow down their symptoms so that the elderly and those that are affected by it would be able to live normal lives for much longer. One of these methods is by providing dementia patients with activities that can help stimulate their brain, and a great way to do these activities is by giving patients activity books, which contain different games, mazes, and puzzles. To learn more, here are details about activity books and the best ones you can buy today.
What are Activity Books?
Activity books are products that can be used to provide kids, adults, and seniors with something to play with during their free time. Activity books usually contain ten or more pages that are filled with activities for people to do and accomplish. The activities inside the said books include puzzles, mazes, quizzes, black-and-white printouts that can be colored, and more.
Although activity books were once aimed at children, there are now activity books that are specifically designed to be enjoyed by adults and seniors. Most activity books are made to provide education, although the ones made for adults are more focused on brain stimulation while offering fun and excitement, even if the ones playing are sitting or lying down.
What are the Different Types of Activity Books?
There are different types of activity books that you can buy in toy stores, hobby shops, and online marketplaces. These activity books would have different contents, ranging from easy activities to complex puzzles. Here are pieces of info about each type of activity book for you to learn more about them.
Quiz Books
Quiz books are arguably some of the most popular activity books on the market, as they are a lot of fun to play, especially when you play them with other people. These quiz books contain questions that are connected to different topics, like history, movies, TV shows, and more, and you would have to guess the answers to those questions.
A lot of quiz books have easy questions that can easily be answered even if you don’t have knowledge about any particular topic. However, there are also quiz books that have difficult questions, which is more suitable for adults that want a little bit of challenge with the quizzes they answer. For seniors, we recommend easy quiz books just to keep their brains stimulated without stressing or worrying about difficult questions.
Maze Books
Maze books, as their name already suggests, are activity books that have mazes on each page that can vary in difficulty. Each of these mazes has a starting line and a finish line, and finding the path toward the finish line can be easy or complex depending on the difficulty of the maze.
While maze books are pretty fun to play alone, they are more enjoyable if the dementia patient has one or more people to play with. They can compete on who will reach the finish line the fastest by having a timer or a stopwatch.
Crossword Puzzle Books
Crossword puzzle books contain one of the most popular types of puzzles among adults and seniors, crossword puzzles. These crossword puzzle books can be quite challenging because, instead of questions, the clues you will be given for the answers are words or phrases that are related or connected to the answers. For example, if the answer is a specific play by William Shakespeare, the clue would be a particular line or character in the play.
For seniors and patients that have dementia, crossword puzzle books may be very difficult for them, as these books would require them to remember and recognize certain topics, objects, and subjects. So, crossword puzzle books may not be the best type of activity book to give to patients with dementia.
Coloring Books
Coloring books are arguably the easiest type of activity books for seniors, as all they need to have fun are crayons or colored pencils that are used to color different pages of the books. Much like most activity books, coloring books were once made for children, but there are now coloring books that are perfect for adults and seniors.
These coloring books are very calming or relaxing to color or play with, which is why they are also effective in reducing stress and anxiety for seniors or patients with dementia. According to studies, stress and anxiety can increase the risk of dementia and may worsen the symptoms of the said disorder. [2] So, helping seniors calm down and stay relaxed is essential in order for them to live more comfortably every day, and this can be achieved by providing them with coloring books and other items or toys that can help them relax.
Sudoku Books
Sudoku is a challenging puzzle wherein you will have to fill a 9×9 grid and make sure that the numbers present are not repeating horizontally, vertically, and within each of the six smaller boxes inside the grid. This game or puzzle is very popular among adults and seniors, although it is typically more challenging compared to the other activities or puzzles on this list. If the dementia patient wants some challenge in the activities he or she is going to play, you can recommend for them to play sudoku in activity books.
Word Search Books
Word search books contain word search puzzles that are very easy to play for kids, adults, and seniors. These puzzles involve finding specific words in a jumble of letters, which is fairly simple to do but can be complicated at times, especially if there are a lot of letters on the grid or if the words you are looking for are very long. These word search puzzles are common in a lot of activity books, but you can specifically find books that only contain word search puzzles and games.
Variety Books
Variety books are the ones that contain different kinds of activities. So, you will find puzzles, quizzes, coloring sections, and other types of fun activities in various books. If the patient with dementia can easily get tired of doing the same activities over and over, you can give him or her a variety of activity books so that he or she will have something different to do after finishing one activity.
The Best Activity Books for Seniors and Patients with Dementia
There are hundreds of activity books for seniors and patients with dementia to choose from, although there are only a few that are considered the best when it comes to providing fun and excitement. Here are the best activity books for people with dementia.
- Memory Games for Seniors: 501 XXL Puzzle Activity Book – this fun activity book contains 501 different activities that are designed to be played by adults and seniors. What’s great about the book is that it has a large print with big fonts for letters and numbers, so seniors won’t have a hard time reading anything in the book.
- Large Print Variety Puzzles for Seniors – this is a shorter activity book that doesn’t look overwhelming for some seniors. The activity book contains 60 easy mind games that include sudoku, mazes, and word search puzzles. Because of how easy the activities are, the activity book can help relieve stress while providing entertainment to seniors and patients with dementia.
- Large Print Activity Book and Easy Memory Puzzles for Seniors – for plenty of variety, you should get this activity book, which contains crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, find the difference games, sudoku games, coloring pages, and more. Much like the first two books, this activity book has a large print to make it easier for seniors to read various words and numbers.
- Variety Puzzle Book for Adults – this activity book contains more than 90 puzzles that are in large print, and these puzzles include word search games, word scramble, sudoku, trivia quizzes, and mazes. Because of how many activities are in this book, it can last for days and weeks before the senior or patient has solved all of the puzzles and quizzes.
- 399 Games, Puzzles, and Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to Keep Your Brain Young – one of the most popular activity books online is this specific book that is written or designed by Nancy Linde. This activity book contains 399 activities that have varying levels of difficulty, which then allow the book to be versatile for people that want to have easier puzzles while also wanting a challenge on certain days.
- Large Print Merriam-Webster Puzzles 10 Booklet Set – this one is a booklet set that has ten booklets containing different types of puzzles, from crosswords to word search games. The interesting thing about this booklet set is that it was created and published by Merriam-Webster, so you will be sure that the words, terms, and descriptions on the puzzles and quizzes are accurate and grammatically correct.
- Stress Relief Memory Activity Book for Seniors – written by Ellyse Mayfield, this activity book is specifically designed to relieve the stress of seniors and patients that have dementia and Alzheimer’s. It contains easy puzzles and quizzes that help stimulate the brain of seniors while also letting them have fun.
- Simple Activities for Seniors – another activity book that contains easy and simple activities and puzzles for seniors. Besides the common puzzles like sudoku and word search, there are also the less common puzzles in this book like dot to dot, hangman, and connect the numbers.
- Little Moments of Joy: Adult Activity Book – this colorful activity book is designed to provide relaxation and brain stimulation for seniors and dementia patients. In addition to coloring pages, brain games, sudoku, and word search, the book also has writing activities that can help improve or retain hand-eye coordination.
- The Greatest Activity Book for Seniors – a fun activity book that contains enjoyable puzzles, quizzes, and mazes designed with seniors in mind. This book has 100 activities that are in large print for easier reading.
And there you go, some of the best details that you should know about activity books and the best ones that you can buy online or in physical stores. While activity books can be enjoyed alone, it would be much more fun for seniors and dementia patients to play these activity books with their loved ones. So, spend extra time with your elderly loved ones or relatives that have dementia and play these activity books with them.
References
[1] World Health Organization Newsroom. (2022, September 20). Dementia. World Health Organization. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dementia
[2] Alzheimer’s Society Blog. (2022, November 1). Can stress cause dementia? Alzheimer’s Society. Retrieved December 29, 2022, from https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/blog/can-stress-cause-dementia