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Stacey avatar

Hi i am a daycare officer for 9 adults with learning disabilities, their ages ranges are from 30 to 80 each one is unique in their own way but very different to each other. Its hard to find fun moving activities that they will enjoy for more than 10 minutes as a group, the main group activities they will do is crafts. Due to covid we are stuck in and i feel like we are on repeat and getting bored of the same things. Please if anyone has any suggestions

We play bingo

Wii games

Board games

Flower arrangements

Baking/cooking

A lot of crafts

We have seated exercise and have pamper days with footspas and nail painting.

Anything fresh and new would be very appreciated thank you

Susan avatar

Hi Stacey

It sounds like you have some good ideas

Are there any two residents who are somewhat similar and their likes

Perhaps they could entertain the others as an activity

Are you allowed to do any singing??

I always found sing-alongs to be a great group activity

If so you could alternate with resident favorites

How about the ABC’s of any particular thing

Perhaps you could do the names of flowers

Girls or boys names

I am sure there are other things you could do the ABC’s of

Have you tried if I was going on a trip and I packed a bag what would I put in it

You could go around and see how many of the items people can remember or not depending on the ability of the group members

Have you tried armchair travel to various locations

https://www.goldencarers.com/armchair-travel/

You could let each person pick a destination and then do a whole session on that

What about read aloud stories

https://www.goldencarers.com/calendar/world-read-aloud-day-activities/175/

What about horse racing

https://www.goldencarers.com/search/#stq=Horse%20racing&stp=1

If you need more ideas let me know

Susan avatar

Hi Stacey

I thought of two more ideas

How about card games

https://www.goldencarers.com/playing-cards-all-inclusive-games-for-seniors/5236/

Or dice Games

https://www.goldencarers.com/dice-games-for-the-elderly/5307/

I have done these games with nine or more people

Katherine avatar

When I worked in a day program for adults w/ dd, something I did was to make "Activity Sticks" I put all kinds of activities on popsicle sticks, and put them in a jar. Ranging from Music, exercise, cooking, Living Skills, Bingo, games, etc. My participants loved music, but the problem was, they all liked different genres, so again, I used popsicle sticks, and put on each stick a genre of music (I had over 100+ genres, classical, zydeco, 50's jazz, to name a few), Each day we did music, some one would draw a stick, then we would play music from that genre, incorporating instruments sometimes, we would also look up information pertaining to that genre, to learn more about it. They loved this activity. You can make it a week long project with one genre, listening to it, researching the origins, most famous singers, groups etc, comparing and contrasting. I also used a website: disabilitynews, which gave you stories related to disabilities. I once read a story about a gentleman and son duo, (the son had CP) the son loved heavy metal, so the father made it a goal for them to go to as many concerts over the course of a year (pre- covid), I found this gentlemans FB page, and he sent me updates on their travels, my group (varying levels) enjoyed seeing the pictures, and the venues they visited. I haven't seen anything posted in a while, however, they had helped develop a "MasonFest" metal concert. Anyways, I got ideas from there, on activities, we could do.

Susan avatar

Hi Katherine

Thank you for this valuable information

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