Want to plan something fun on your next caregiving shift, but can’t make it outside? Try one of these 7 great indoor activities for adults with disabilities.
Planning Indoor Activities for Adults with Disabilities:
To make caregiving shifts a success, it’s important to put some planning into the activities you’re going to do on your shift. This doesn’t need to take hours of planning, but gathering some basic things and deciding what to do ahead of time can make a world of difference once you get to your shift. Our blog has tons of caregiving activities to do on caregiving shifts, so be sure to take advantage of all our content to plan what you’re going to do.
The Best Indoor Activities for Adults with Disabilities:
These indoor activities for adults with disabilities are meant to be fun and simple thought starters so that you as the caregiver can make a plan of what you’re going to do on your caregiving shift. You know the person you’re caring for better than most other people. Look through this list and get some ideas of what they might like to do. The best indoor activities are the ones that that person receiving care actually likes doing.
Make Something in the Kitchen:
Cooking in the kitchen is an easy and fun activity that almost always goes over well. You can scale this to be as complex or as simple as you’d like. An easy way to start with cooking with someone with developmental disabilities would be to use a store bought baking mix. This way there are just a few steps and a few ingredients. Once you get more confident at easy baking mixes, you can build you way up to more made from scratch recipes with more complex ingredients.
Board games for Adults with Disabilities:
Board games are a great way to pass the time and work on caregiving goals. Board games can help develop executive functioning, fine motor, and gross motor skills. We recently wrote a post all about the best board games for adults with disabilities, click here for all the details.
Have a Dance Party:
Crank up the music and have a dance party. This is a great way to work on physical goals your client might have and they’ll have a blast listening to all their favorite songs on repeat. Bonus points if you can find a disco ball.
Art Projects for Disabled Adults:
There are a ton of great art projects out there that you can do with items purchased from the dollar store, or for fairly cheap at a local craft store. We recently wrote a blog post with 10 crafts for adults with disabilities. There are a wide variety of ideas including clay projects, sensory bottles, ornaments, and much more!
Yoga for People with Disabilities:
Yoga is an amazing activity that you should try incorporating into your next caregiving shift! Yoga has a lot of amazing benefits such as:
- Improving strength and flexibility
- Pain relief
- Boosts heart health
- Relaxes your body
- Improves mental health
- Helps facilitate self-care
There are a lot of great yoga videos you can find online, but a lot of adults with disabilities might love the Cosmic Kids Yoga channel on Youtube. This channel has a lot of simplified yoga movements, and fun animations that can help make it more entertaining than traditional yoga. It also has fun story lines that go with each video so you feel like you’re on an adventure.
Have an Indoor Picnic:
Eating your dinner on the floor with a blanket is wildly more fun than eating at the table. You can turn this into a more drawn out activity by preparing the meal together, setting up the picnic in the living room, and then serving and eating the food. There are a lot of different acts of daily living (commonly known as ADLs), that you can work on with this activity.
Indoor Scavenger Hunt:
Indoor scavenger hunts are easy to put together and can be a lot of fun for the person receiving care. You can make a quick list using pictures of the items that need to be found and then take turns finding the objects around their home. Scavenger hunts are great for visual tracking, executive functioning, fine motor skills, and gross motor skills.
