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About Brain Exercises
In the information we offer about maintaining a healthy brain, we offer ways to stimulate the growth of connections between brain cells. These can be done regardless of age, physical ability, language or ethnicity. The key is to do new and varied things.
Click here to learn more about maintaining a healthy brain.
Examples of Brain Exercise Activities
- Puzzles and games - Sudoku puzzles do not require language skills; other games like card games and Mahjong are both challenging and social.
- Bridge - The main body of scientific opinion is that playing Bridge or similar card games challenges the brain and creates new neural pathways. Games like Bridge require memory skills and the ability to recognize patterns, as well as the challenge of predicting what might happen next. It is also important to recognize that unlike games like Patience or Solo, Bridge is a social game - it is played in groups and thus gets Gold Points in our model of brain health!
- Listening to stories - Listening to the radio or audio books, or being read to, requires your brain to form images in your mind about what’s being read. That is why listening and reading are better for the brain than watching TV or movies.
- New language - Learning a new language is an excellent way to stimulate the formation of neural pathways because it requires a strenuous mental workout.
- Music - Learning to play a musical instrument is also likely to be very beneficial because the brain needs to work hard to learn the new skills and to coordinate new hand-brain movements.
Doing any of these activities in a social setting meets Gold Points in the brain health objectives. Don’t forget the other aspects of brain health - it is a Mind/Body/Spirit approach.
Click here to print the Healthy Brain worksheet.
Internet Resources
There are a lot of free games available on the web; we suggest you try different things to see what you find challenging and interesting. Some examples of places to find games online:
- Sudoku: www.websudoku.com
- Puzzles: www.edhelper.com/puzzles.htm
Additional links
- The Vancouver Public Library site may help you to find audio books and multi-lingual resources.
- The Greater Victoria Public Library Service has multi-language resources on line.
- Braille games and aids for people who are blind are available for order on line.
- Created for the Nintendo DS gaming system, Brain Age is a game that primarily challenges reaction time. This covered only one aspect of brain fitness, however –it is not the complete answer to brain health! For details, visit brainage.com.
