Activity Title: Familiar Phrases

Source: Bird, G. "Cognitive Activities - Familiar Phrases" Therapeutic Recreation Directory. 14

Mar. 2006. Web. 21 Sept. 2015. http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/familiarphrases.htm
Equipment: A list of common idioms, phrases, and/or metaphors. Examples include:
Time is money
A labor of love
Barking up the wrong tree
Laughing stock
A frog in the throat

Dead as a doornail
Bet your bottom dollar
A square meal
Ace in the hole
Elephant in the room

As cool as a cucumber
Back seat driver
Fit as a fiddle
Smoking gun
Happy as a clam

Description of Activity:
The objective of this activity is to increase memory and to facilitate reminiscence. However, this
activity can also be used to improve or regain metaphorical thinking skills. The therapist reads
from the list and tries to get participants to finish the phrases. For example, A pictures worth a
thousand _____. This can be done one by one, with the therapist asking individual participants
to answer at a time or ask the group as a whole and have participants who know the answer
raise their hands.
Leadership considerations:
This activity can be done 1 on 1 or in small to moderate size groups, ideally in a class room or
activity room setting. The therapist should ask different types of follow up questions to the
participants about the phrases they heard depending on the therapeutic objectives of the group.
Adaptations:
Older Adults with Dementia: Adults with dementia often experience short term memory loss
prior to long term memory loss, therefore, are likely to be able to remember common phrases
they learned earlier in life. To add to the reminisce element of the activity, participants might be
asked if they can recall a time they used or heard the phrases or what each phrase makes them
remember from earlier in their lives. If one on one (or in small homogenous groups) the therapist
might try to find phrases used in the clients culture, language, or region.
Adults with Traumatic Brain Injuries: Adults with TBIs often experience concrete thinking and
have trouble with figurative language processing. This activity might be used as a problemsolving exercise where participants are taught systematic methods to break down and figure out
the phrases together. For this purpose, the list should be modified to include only metaphors.
The therapist might add some humor to the activity to reduce feelings of frustration. One way to
do this might be drawing funny depictions of the literal meaning of some of the phrases on a
blackboard.

Activity Title: Follow You, Follow Me

Source: Fulk, M. " Music Activities." Therapeutic Recreation Directory. 30 Jan. 2001. Web. 21
Sept. 2015. http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/musicactivities.htm
Equipment: An assortment of small percussion instruments (ex. drum sticks, maracas, bongos,
etc.), 1 jam block.
Description of Activity:
The objective of this activity is to increase attention, mental flexibility, short-term memory, and
participation in-group activities. Participants are asked to sit in a circle and percussion
instruments are distributed. The activity leader plays a simple rhythm on a jam block.
Participants are instructed to play the rhythm back on their own instruments.
Leadership considerations:
This activity is ideal for small to moderate groups and can be done in any setting. The therapist
may stand inside the circle while leading the activity or stand in the center to visually orient
participants. The therapist might also put familiar words to beats to help participants remember
the rhythms. For example, two eighth notes followed by a quarter note would be Ap-ple Pie.
Participants may also take turns as the leader.
Adaptations:
Older Adults with Dementia: Lighter instruments should be used so that participants can hold
them for longer periods of time. The therapist might go around the circle and play different
rhythms to one participant at a time so that each person has to recall their own rhythm.
Participants with ADHD: Tis activity might be played as a competitive game to promote
attention. The therapist plays increasingly long or complex rhythms from a place in the circle
and the person to their right places it back, and then the next, and so on. In order to make the
game fair, the therapist must change their place in the circle several times. Every time a person
plays the rhythm incorrectly, they step outside the circle. The winner is last one standing.

Activity Title: A Blast to the Past

Source: Stumbo, N. (1992). Leisure education II: More activities and resources. State College,
Pa.: Venture Pub.
Equipment: A set of index cards with memory categories written on them (ex. your first
automobile, your favorite childhood pet, your favorite memory of all time, the funniest thing you
ever did or saw, your favorite vacation, your favorite childhood toy, the best present you ever
received, your first sweetheart, etc.)
Description of Activity: The objective of this activity is to help participants improve memory
recall and examine life patterns and values related to leisure by giving them the opportunity to
reminisce past event and memories from earlier in life. The therapist then introduces the activity
by asking participants to share some of their memories and that they should focus on memories
of their childhood years, especially the positive ones. The therapists then reads some prompts
out loud from the index cards and has participants take turns sharing their memories. The
therapist may facilitate discussions about some similarities and differences between answers.
The therapist should then ask participants whether or not they adhered to the same leisure
patterns throughout their lives, what has changed the most, what remained the same, and why
did changes in leisure occur.
Leadership considerations: This activity is ideal for small groups of up to 6 individuals and is
to take place in a comfortable, private room where participants feel comfortable disclosing
personal information. The therapist should encourage participants to answer all questions but
respect their right not to respond if they are not comfortable disclosing some information.
Adaptations:
Older Adults Recovering from Stroke: Leisure education programs for individuals recovering
from a stroke should encourage individuals to self-examine their interests, attitudes, frequency
of participation, and motivation regarding leisure and perceived barriers (Nour, Desrosiers,
Gauthier, and Carbonneau, 2002). If this activity is part of a home or 1 on 1 outpatient leisure
education program, more emphasis should be put on self-examination of personal and/or family
interests (Nour et al., 2002). However, if this program is taking place in a residential treatment
setting, more emphasis should be placed on group similarities in interests and the possibility for
further socialization and collective recreation.
Older Adults with Early Stage Alzheimers Disease: Participation in meaningful recreation can
greatly improve the quality of life of individuals with dementia in residential settings; therefore it
is important for the therapist to find out what types of activities clients would enjoy participating
in (Singleton, Ritcey, and Camp Hill Medical Centre, 1992). However, finding this out can be a
challenge when working with individuals with Alzheimers disease due to memory loss,
disorientation, and communication problems such as aphasia. According to the continuity
theory, older adults maintain their patterns of activity throughout their lifespan and prefer to
participate in activities that are familiar to them, therefore exploring leisure interests from earlier
in life is a good way to determine the leisure interests of individuals with Alzheimers disease
(Singleton, Ritcey, and Camp Hill Medical Centre, 1992).
Nour, K., Desrosiers, J., Gauthier, P., & Carbonneau, H. (2002). Impact of a Home Leisure
Educational Program for Older Adults Who Have Had a Stroke (Home Leisure
Educational Program).Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 36(1). Retrieved
from http://js.sagamorepub.com/trj/article/view/1048

Singleton, J. F., Ritcey, A. G., & Camp Hill Medical Centre. (1992). Therapeutic recreation
assessment for persons with Alzheimer's (Film). Halifax, N.S: Camp Hill Medical
Centre.