Activities for

Geriatric
Patients
for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists

his e-book collects some of the most popular activities discussed

by Jennifer Kay-Williams, MA, CCC-SLP, in her ADVANCE blog,

Focus on Geriatric and Adult Services.
Jennifer uses activities in therapy as a
creative way to address attention,
memory, problem-solving,
expressive language and other
issues. You can adjust the level of
difficulty of each task to a

Contents
Reminisce over Post Cards
Relax with Music
Paint for Fun
Garden and Gab

patients ability.

Name That Tune

Newspaper Activities
Sorting Tasks
For Holidays and Every Day
For more ideas, read Jennifers blog at
www.advanceweb.com/SPGeriatricBlog.

for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists

GERIATRICS

Reminisce over
Post Cards
Look at and talk about post cards, travel guides
and photographs to target attention, short-term
memory, descriptive concepts, categorizing,
past memory/reminiscing, problem-solving and
expressive language at a variety of levels.
Local post cards are a great way to
target memory and language skills via
reminiscence tasks. Patients love to
talk about local attractions they are
familiar with.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

Post cards from elsewhere may facilitate

communication about favorite vacations or
descriptions of the pictures.
Post cards can be kept in mini photo albums
and organized by theme or place.

JEFFREY LEESER/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, PHILADELPHIA

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Relax with Music

Singing activities help patients relax and
produce more words, phrases and sentences
in songs, even those who are struggling
to communicate years post-stroke.
Patients who are nonverbal or in the
late stages of dementia can smile,
hum, wave their hands, or move their
bodies with the music. Music can
stimulate memories in some patients.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

When visiting church groups and music

groups perform, patients love to sing or
hum along.

Kyle Kielinski/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, phoenixville

Consider a variety of therapy activities that

include music and song. Good resources are
Melodic Intonation Therapy (www.healthline.
com/galecontent/melodic-intonation-therapy)
and Early Aphasia Therapy for the Clinic and Home,
by Emily Pietz Porter, which includes songs
familiar to many seniors and target phrases sung
with the patient to foster production of functional
communication and greetings.

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Paint for Fun

Painting is a great activity for higher-level
patients. Discuss where to start a painting and
how to progress, problem-solving along
the way. Allow two to three sessions to
complete a painting.
Some patients will need more
assistance and may only be able to fill
in large areas of color. Reassure them
that the activity is for fun so they dont
get frustrated.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

Higher-level patients can work on colormixing, while lower-level patients will require
pre-mixed or primary colors. Incorporate set-up
and clean-up into the session.

JEFFREY LEESER/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, PHILADELPHIA

Therapy goals may include descriptive language,

problem-solving, sequencing, attention to
task, receptive language, following directions,
conversational speech for articulation/
intelligibility and expressive/receptive language,
offering opinions, and expressing preferences.

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Garden and Gab

This activity can be as basic as planting seeds
and watering plants. Geriatric residents get very
excited watching plants grow.
Provide seasonal flowers so patients can
make centerpieces for the dining room,
a holiday party or their own room.
Flower arranging with artificial
flowers is a fun alternative, and the
flowers can be reused.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

While having fun, you can address

descriptive language, attention to task,
conversational speech, offering opinions, and
expressing preferences.

JEFFREY LEESER

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Name That Tune

Play snippets of a song, and ask residents to

guess the title and artist.

Provide a stack of CDs from different eras

and genres, and let patients take turns
selecting the music for an activity.
Avoid pop culture references to new
songs and movies that patients arent
familiar with if they become confused
or hurt when caregivers use them. They
may feel they are being laughed at.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

But dont assume that all patients are not

interested. Some have embraced modern music,
computers and video games and enjoy trying
new things.

JEFFREY LEESER/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, PHILADELPHIA

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Newspaper Activities
Use newspaper articles for memory tasks. Read
advice columns and letters to the editor to talk
about opinions and formulate expressive
language.
Comic strips are great for addressing
interpretation of humor, pragmatic
skills, expressing opinions and
reading skills.
Magazines also can be used to address
communication tasks. Find magazines
that address a patients interests, and use
them in therapy activities.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

Cut out pictures from magazines to make

themed collages with patients, such as favorite
foods or animals.

JEFFREY LEESER/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, PHILADELPHIA

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Sorting Tasks
Patients with decreased cognitive skills
enjoy sorting tasks.
Coupons can be used in problemsolving and money management
tasks. Patients can sort coupons into
categories, or the therapist can make a
grocery list and ask patients to look for
coupons for the items on the list.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

Keep a plastic box of old jewelry on hand that

includes large clip-on earrings, bracelets and
chunky beaded necklaces. (Chains tend to get
tangled.) Patients can decide which earrings
match a necklace or bracelet.
Fishing lures also can be used for a sorting task.
Remove the hooks and have patients organize
the lures in an inexpensive tackle box.
Other objects that lend themselves to sorting
tasks are tools, kitchen items, clothes, playing
cards, picture cards, shapes and utensils.
JEFFREY LEESER/ADVANCE THANKS ATRIA SENIOR LIVING, PHILADELPHIA

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For Holidays
and Every Day
Many simple, meaningful activities
can address cognitive-linguistic and
communication goals on holidays and
throughout the year.
Have patients fill goody bags for
staff, family members and other
residents around holidays. They can
write greeting cards or post cards to send
to family or give to other residents.

Click here to
read a tip from
Jennifer!

Create collages that have a holiday theme or

involve family, animals or pets, historical eras and
events, hobbies, etc.
Patients may enjoy putting icing on store-bought
cookies or making sandwiches or smoothies.
Check for dietary restrictions. The kitchen at your
facility may provide many of the ingredients.

JEFFREY LEESER

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