You've probably heard that playing board games is good for cognitive function, mental clarity, and memory retention — but have you heard about the benefits they provide for aging and development? Board and card games are not only the perfect activity to bring together a group of friends any time of year but also a great way to stay mentally engaged. Below, we've compiled a list of the best senior-friendly games to try at your next game night. 

Board Games

Grab one of these board game options to play with friends.

1. Trivial Pursuit Generations

Trivial Pursuit Generations adds a twist to the classic board game you know and love. This version sticks to the six classic categories, but it includes segmented questions for each generation, including the Greatest Generation, baby boomers, Generation X, millennials, and Generation Z. You choose which generation you play, whether it's your own or another.

Trivial Pursuit Generations offers many benefits as you age, including:

• Fact recall to engage your brain
• New information to keep you learning
• Generation-specific trivia to help you connect with multigenerational players, such as your grandchildren
• Decision-making when choosing an answer to stimulate your frontal cortex, where memory function happens

2. Aggravation

In this classic board game, you race up to five other players to see who can get their marbles back home first. The aggravation part comes in when you land on a spot where someone else has a marble. That causes you to aggravate the marker and send it back to the starting area. The game involves strategy when choosing which of your marbles to move and whether or not to take shortcuts. 

Some benefits for aging and development include:

• Strategic thinking to keep your brain active
• Practicing fine motor skills when moving the marbles around the board
• Problem-solving when deciding how to position your pieces to avoid being sent back to the start
• Social interactions, including learning to deal with the aggravation of going back to the beginning

3. Really Loud Librarians

The point of Really Loud Librarians is to shout out words that fit the requirements as quickly as possible — no need to use a hushed library voice here. The game board is a race track with various letters on it. Your team draws a category card and shouts out words that fit the category and start with the letter on the game board. When you get a word that fits, you move to the next spot on the board. The idea is to race the other team. 

Reasons you might play this game include:

• Fast-paced approach requires you to think quickly and keep your brain moving
• Requires information recall to help with memory
• Simple instructions make the game easy to play and allow for success, which boosts your sense of accomplishment
• Works with groups of any size, allowing you to engage in various social situations
• Encourages you to work together with your teammates to foster cooperation

4. Chronology

Having a solid grasp of historical events can help you with Chronology, but some of the events in the game are so obscure they could throw you for a loop. The goal of this game is to create an accurate, chronological timeline of events. Each person builds their own timeline—the first person to get 10 events in order correctly wins. When it's your turn, someone else reads an event on a card. You have to figure out where that event falls chronologically compared to the events on the other cards you have. You get to keep the card if you choose the correct spot. 

This game is beneficial for older adults for these reasons:

• Critical thinking skills to choose the right order stimulate your brain
• Events that happened during your lifetime might stir up memories
• Recalling certain events could lead to reminiscing with your fellow players, which could help preserve memories
• Manipulating the cards requires dexterity to keep your fine motor skills sharp

Card Games

Card games often involve strategy that engages your brain. You also handle cards, which uses your fine motor skills to help keep your dexterity high. If your group prefers card games, here are some options to try.

1. Up the River/Down the River

Grab a deck of cards to play this game, which requires strategy and prediction. The idea is to predict how many tricks you can make based on the trump card that's chosen from the top of the pile. Play moves around the table with one point being earned for a trick and 10 points being earned for predicting how many tricks you'll earn. With each round, you deal one less card to each player until you get to only one card, at which point you start adding a card each round. 

Benefits of this card game include:

• Engaging your problem-solving skills to guess how many tricks you can make
• Strategic thinking to choose which card to play
• Ability to adjust your play based on the cards other people play

2. Bridge

Bridge is a classic card game played with four people divided into two teams. It involves a bidding and card play stage, similar to Up the River/Down the River. When you bid, you say how many tricks you think you'll win. The next player has to place a higher bid or can pass. The game has lots of little details, so it can take some time to master if you're new to bridge.

Reasons to play the game include:

• Partnerships help improve your communication and collaboration
• Strategic bidding and card play support your brain health

3. Pinochle

Another card game that involves winning tricks, pinochle is a game meant for two to four players. It requires a special pack of cards since it doesn't use the two through eight cards. Various cards and tricks come with different point values. You can also meld card combinations to earn higher points. 

Some benefits for aging in this game include:

• Learning a complex set of scoring possibilities to engage advanced thinking skills
• Strategic gameplay choices to earn the highest points possible
• Managing a large number of cards at once to improve dexterity

Have Fun at The Seneca

At The Seneca, residents find fun, live well, and thrive through the numerous services and amenities, from enjoying the community movie theater to participating in social events on the program calendar. If you have questions about senior living, contact The Seneca today at 301.304.4349.