‘Aging in Play-ce’: Fun has real benefits for seniors
Image by pasja1000 for Pixabay
Every Sunday afternoon, Bud and Marilyn Kratz sit down at their dining table in Yankton, South Dakota, to play cards with Bud’s sister, Marsha Beran.
The Kratzes have played Sets and Runs, a variation on rummy, for decades. They played it with Bud’s parents, Helen and Clarence Kratz, and they still play it with their grown children and grandchildren when they visit.
“We play every Sunday unless there’s something else going on,” Marilyn Kratz said. “And these days, there’s usually not something else going on.”
The Kratzes play Sets and Runs because they like it, obviously, and because of their many fond family memories associated with the game. But now that they’re in their 80s, they play for other reasons, as well.
“I really think it’s very beneficial to keep our minds alert as we age, because they require problem-solving and extending your memory,” Marilyn Kratz said. “The sociability is important, too. When you play games, you’re interacting with people, using your conversation skills, connecting.
“And it’s fun! The Sundays get really long when we don’t have our card game.”
Prioritizing Play
While the idea of making play a priority is much more associated with children than older people, taking time to play is vital for both groups. Research has documented a host of benefits of play for seniors, including:
Reduced stress
Increased socialization and decreased loneliness
Higher sense of purpose
Better cognitive function
For physical play, increased muscle tone, fewer falls, and less reliance on canes and walkers
Deeper connection with younger generations
Greater satisfaction in relationships and more experience of positive emotions
That’s all according to The Genius of Play, an arm of the nonprofit Toy Association that works to “provide families with the information and inspiration they need to make play an important part of every child’s day.” And while the group’s focus is mostly on children, they present compelling, research-backed evidence that play is good for anyone, at any age.
Ray and Kathy Johnson certainly agree. The Cottonwood Heights, Utah, couple, now in their 70s, have been socially and physically active all their lives, playing softball, tennis, golf, and other sports as well as making family game nights a priority when they were raising their four children.
While some of those activities have gone by the wayside as they’ve gotten older, the Johnsons have continued bicycling and playing tennis and golf, and they’ve picked up a few new games, as well, like pickleball. They’re an example to their adult children and grandchildren, and even a motivator.
“We like to get the family out to play tennis together,” Kathy Johnson said, describing her extended family playing freewheeling evening “pickup” games of doubles tennis, with people rotating in and out every few games.
“Being active in whatever you like gets you outside and moving,” she said. “Even when we use a golf cart, we still do a lot of walking when we golf. We have a good time.”
Both of the Johnsons said they think their lifetime habits—staying active and making time for fun—help motivate them to keep playing as they age. But they said anyone can add play into their lives.
“The key is to find something you enjoy,” Ray Johnson said. “That’s important, because it keeps you motivated, and it’s harder to stay active than it used to be as you get older.”
His point is a good one, and researchers, public health experts, and businesses are all taking notice.
From Pickleball to Scrabble
Take the aforementioned pickleball, for example. While the sport was invented in 1965 in the Pacific Northwest, it exploded in popularity across the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now considered the country’s fastest-growing sport. With its small courts, light paddles and balls, and easy-to-follow rules, pickleball is widely seen as a highly accessible sport for beginners, exercise novices—and seniors.
In a Time magazine article, North Carolina State University professor Jonathan Casper, who studied the benefits of pickleball for older adults, said it is “a public health tool in many ways, both for achieving physical activity and for getting the psychological and social benefits that are so important as we age.” The article goes on to note that a half-hour pickleball game burns more calories than half an hour of walking and can improve cholesterol levels, blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness, and even confidence and optimism.
Pickleball works for older adults just as it is, but other game-makers are adapting their offerings for aging people. Ageless Innovation was formed as a division of the Hasbro toy company originally tasked with finding innovative new markets for Hasbro products. Focusing on the senior market, the division first developed Joy For All, a line of companion pets we’ve written about before.
In addition, the company adapted classic Hasbro board games for intergenerational play. The Game of Life Generations features specific experiences of the Greatest Generation, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z: “Players travel a life path infused with humorous cultural and lifestyle references and experiences unique to each generation,” the game’s web page reads. Similarly, Trivial Pursuit Generations features questions highlighting the various generations, as well as blank cards players can use to include their own family-specific trivia in the game.
Joy for All’s version of Scrabble takes a slightly different approach, presenting everything needed to play classic Scrabble, plus quick-running Scrabble bingo and collaborative Scrabble Pass. The game also features easier-to-handle racks and tiles and larger print.
The electronic frontier
But that’s not all: older adults are also getting into playing electronic and online games, and we’re not just talking about solitaire. According to a 2017 paper, “Exergaming: Meaningful Play for Older Adults?” by Eugéne Loos, “Not only do statistical data from countries such as USA, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands clearly show that a considerable number of older adults play digital games, our narrative literature review also shows which dimensions stimulate older adults to play exergames: diversion, social interaction, and user friendliness.”
The “gamifying” of culture and therapies related to the care of people as they age has resulted in games that build muscle mass and endurance in seniors, and that can help with memory issues related to cognitive decline. Some developers are releasing electronic games aimed at seniors, while others are building features into standard games that improve the game experience for people who need, for example, larger font sizes or changeable game speeds.
Adjustments like these broaden these games’ appeal, the authors wrote: “As age-related functional limitations occur with a certain regularity from age 75 on, and are common from age 85 and up, these must be taken into account by designers of exergames, to avoid having older adults who are motivated to play exergames being hindered by factors due to biological aging.”
The next step in electronic gaming, virtual reality, also has exciting implications for seniors. Putting on a VR headset for, say, a guided stroll across a Greek island, “breaks down barriers and turns everyday spaces into borderless activity areas,” according to “Crossing the digital frontier: Are older adults ready for virtual reality workouts?” This paper, written by researcher André Ramalho and others, notes that “research has confirmed the tangible benefits of VR-assisted physical activity” and that “tailored exercises promise both safety and a vibrant environment,” with people experiencing outdoor spaces or other environments that might be challenging for them in real life, but which are a safe but exciting stimulus in virtual reality.
“These innovative approaches have revitalized many older adults by improving balance, mobility, and cardiovascular vitality,” the authors wrote. “In addition, VR has shown that interactive training with visual feedback can outperform traditional physical training in improving functional mobility and balance in older adults. …
“The potential of VR goes beyond physical well-being and offers a mix of cognitive challenges and physical activity. With VR, older adults can explore historical sites and unfamiliar terrain, combining memory, spatial awareness and movement into a neurocognitive exercise. Emerging research substantiates that the multisensory engagement offered by modern virtual interfaces can significantly improve cognitive abilities.”
The dementia debate
That brings up another important aspect of play for older adults: some games may help slow cognitive decline, especially in people with dementia.
This is a reality for the Kratzes: Bud Kratz has dementia, and his wife, Marilyn, is grateful he is still able to play cards and put together one of the huge 1,000-piece puzzles the couple almost always have set out on a card table in their family room.
“For me, I just like solving problems, and that’s part of why I enjoy doing puzzles,” Marilyn Kratz said. “But I encourage Bud to do puzzles because I think it helps keep him more mentally alert. His memory issues are short-term memory loss, not long-term loss, and I’m so glad Bud can still play sets and runs and that he’s still good at puzzles, because it shows he really still can remember to do certain things. It’s encouraging.”
That encouragement is real, according to experts, but some researchers warn that it’s possible to go too far with pushing the “therapeutic” benefits of various types of play, or with focusing on what older people can’t do, rather than what they can, said researchers Kathrin Gerling, Bob De Schutter, Julie Brown, and Jason Allaire in a presentation titled, “Ageing Playfully: Advancing Research on Games for Older Adults Beyond Accessibility and Health Benefits” at the annual international Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI Play), held that year in London.
“The strong focus on games with a purpose beyond entertainment has recently been criticized as it places the focus on inabilities of players, suggesting that games may be a means of fixing older adults,” the authors wrote in an introduction to their half-day workshop. “(Some propose) that technology for older adults should emphasize strengths of the target audience and account for individual preferences and needs, rather than adopting a homogeneous perspective on aging and age-related problems.”
That’s a powerful point that echoes what Ray Johnson said earlier: you’re more likely to engage in play you enjoy, no matter your age. Here are a few other ideas, beyond those mentioned above, that have been shown to have strong social, physical, and/or cognitive benefits:
Reading stories and storytelling
Planning and recording your life history or other stories
Babysitting or spending time with children
Going on hikes or guided walks
Participating in “pub quizzes” or other social competitions
Using your creativity: writing, drawing, making music
Do what works for you, Kathy Johnson advised—but you should do something, because taking time for play adds real zest to life.
“I love to play tennis, and I’m glad I can still do it,” she said of matches with her local tennis group, which consists mainly of women aged over 65. “I play twice a week, or sometimes three times a week when I sub for someone else. Really, I play whenever I can.”
