moniquita 0 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 We were so fortunate enough to have a family donate the funds to purchase a Wii for our facillity on their deceased loved-ones behalf. It has truly brought our family of residents and staff closer together! If you ever get the chance to obtain one, I think it's well worth it!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigchris 1 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 I agree, we have 2 now and we are "experimenting" with all types of games. I work out with Fit every night and wish they couls come up with something for my residents.....maybe a seated balance board?!?!?!? I have the rights to that!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunakitty 2 Report Share Posted May 12, 2009 I've used the Wii a lot with varying success. The best thing I've found is Big Brain Academy, which was actually purchased for the independent living residents and they didn't really care for it. There are two games that are really great on there - Fast Focus and Speed Sorting (I think they are called.) You can get to them in the practice area; one is under Analyze and one is under Visualize. Fast Focus is a picture of an animal that appears out of focus or fragmented, and it slowly becomes visible. For both games, I operate the remote and let them say what they think it is there (there is multiple choice underneath). At first, they have trouble, but they slowly get the hang of it. There are 3 skill levels that I move up through as they get better at it. It's really adorable what some residents say (my favorite little lady said, "Hmmm...he looks...tigerish" of a tiger.) The Speed Sorting one shows four pictures, and then a question or label; like there will be a picture of a frog, a flower, a bird, and a camera, and the thing is "Plant Matter." So you'd pick the flower. There are also three skill levels to this, which eventually includes things like "Largest", "Smallest" "Second Largest", "Fastest", "Second Slowest" etc. They really like that one, but not quite as much as Fast Focus. The speech therapist absolutely loved that my Alzheimer's residents were playing it - she said it was great for cognition. I keep the Wii set up in the Memory Care unit now and there is a PCA who loves to play it with them. I borrow the Wii out of there a few times a week for the other units, but it's great for in there because they will play it for hours, and it's a game where they can't lose the pieces! As for the Wii Fit, I have one at home too, and I've considered bringing it in for my AL residents to try. They are all ambulatory and have moderately good balance (considering that they are 80-90.) I'll let you know how that goes. Another thing I want to try is racing. Anyone know a good game they might be able to do? Seems like if I bought the steering wheel, they would be able to understand how it worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ella 0 Report Share Posted May 13, 2009 We recently were fortunate enough to have our facility purchase the Wii Game for our Department. We were able to get the entire package with accessories i.e golf clubs, boxing gloves, tennis rackets, etc. We have several discs with multiple games, golf, boxing, tennis, bowling, one disc with several carnival games and unfortunately I have not had time to try all of them. I do not have the game at home so I didn't know anything about it before it arrived at the facility. It has been a little slow going, getting the residents involved but they LOVE the bowling game! It takes time getting them used to the controller and even when they make a mistake they laugh and giggle! It is great for socialization and I can't wait to get into the other games! I suggest that every facility get the game. If you cannot afford to get it through your budget, try through your facility, family members, Hospital Auxiliary, church groups, fundraisers or what ever other avenues you can think of. These types of activities are the up and coming trends in activities and Recreation Therapy. Check out the following web pages for testimonials about the benefits: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/.../169740609.html http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Are-Nursing-...&id=1429985 http://www.scnursinghomelaw.com/2008/03/ar...cial/print.html Hope this help someone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yunakitty 2 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 We had a Wii Tournament with kids from the local elementary school today. It was really lively and noisy but worth it! The kids were split into teams, playing the Big Brain Academy Mind Sprint, and one kid would hold the remote while the others called out answers. The residents really weren't quick enough to answer along with them, but they really enjoyed seeing the kids having so much fun! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kayla 0 Report Share Posted May 27, 2009 We have a Wii. The residents get so frustrated when they can't play a game right. They love to box. They cheer eachother on and really go at it.lol. I found a racing game and bought the steering wheel adapter, it wasn't bad. Also I rented a Carnival game once and it had several different games on it that the residents seemed to enjoy. Many of them just enjoy watching, because they aren't sure what to do. Either way, I guess all that matters is that they have fun. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevinm 2 Report Share Posted May 28, 2009 Wii bowling is the hit here. We have a resident bowling team that competes with our other sister facilities. Those who cannot play are our cheerleaders. We host one month, next month they do. All staff get involved, we have t-shirts made up, etc. Local paper picked up on it, had a story. It's all good! Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashbash31 0 Report Share Posted June 5, 2009 We also have a wii at our facility. I have only been there for a little over a month and I actually got to do the activity with the residents last week. The residents loved it, but only a few handle full of residents came to the activity. We played wii bowling and baseball. I found that baseball was much easier for them to play because you didnt really have to press many buttons. I felt with bowling there were too many buttons to press and I found that the residents needed help and seemed confused. But it might have been confusing because it was my first time doing the Wii Gaming with them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkc 0 Report Share Posted June 7, 2009 The race car games are great but are tough on some because it needs quick reaction times. Brain game was ok but the "grading" part of the game bored them. They like the traget shooting but not much variety in the one game version we got. I see where Wii is coing out Wednesday with a contoll addition that sounds like it may help. Any informationon it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hstitely 0 Report Share Posted June 6, 2010 We were so fortunate enough to have a family donate the funds to purchase a Wii for our facillity on their deceased loved-ones behalf. It has truly brought our family of residents and staff closer together! If you ever get the chance to obtain one, I think it's well worth it!!! We are having a Wii bowling tournament next month for our residents. Each resident will get to bowl two games and the person with the highest combined score will be the winner. After the tournament we are having a pizza party and awarding trophies to all of the participants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavenstar 0 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 Wii Fit: Just so you know, the balance board can fit into many chairs so you can have them sit on it and balance back and forth and play regular. The best way to do this is to set up a new Mii character with that person sitting on it so that it doesn't throw the weight off when doing games. Also, you can put the balance board on the table and have people just use their hands-- set up a new character for that one too. The balance board can also fit perfectly around some walkers-- so people who have minor balance problems can still use the balance board standing up and use the walker for balance. Out of all the games, the Wii fit is the most adaptable that I have found for my residents. For new ones-- we usually start off with the bicycle. It gets them used to the movements and balancing while there is no time limit or consequences. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavenstar 0 Report Share Posted June 7, 2010 Wii Bowling and Wii Golf Tournaments The National Senior League has bowling and golf tournaments a few times a year. They are signing up for golf right now-- and it is free! The bowling costs some money but it is awesome and worth every penny if you have some energetic and competitive bowlers! The Website is www.NSLgames.com. It is only for seniors and last season, there were 183 teams around the United States that played in it. You play once a week and upload your scores on the website. The season last 7 weeks long before playoffs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brandiedwards 0 Report Share Posted July 10, 2016 I tried Wii bowling once. Some learned the controller pretty quickly, others never got it, and got frustrated. I would like to do it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.