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Paralysis caused due to spinal cord injury can be a life-changing moment. What follows is the enduring period of managing the situation and working ways to do things like anyone normal. Physiotherapy, counseling, and community learning are some of the therapies sufferers of spinal cord-related traumas like people with quadriplegia include in their lives to rehabilitating. Interestingly, certain board games can be played with partially paralyzed or people with limited limb movements to give them company, besides physical and mental workout.
Why experts advocate in favor of board games for helping quadriplegics to rehabilitate?
People on their way to rehabilitation from spinal cord injuries need assistive tools to restore and maintain their motor skills. Certain board games can be used in addition to those assistive tools to encourage the utilization of muscles and joints to get the physical activity they need. It is just one part. These games help gain mental exercise too. Other advantages are:
- People with physical disabilities complain about severe nerve and body pain while exercising and, eventually, give it up completely due to its monotonous and tiring nature. Board games can spice up the exercising time and eventually motivate players to push themselves.
- It helps engage their mind in achieving the board game’s target; thus, their focus is dedicated to the game’s task completion rather than the pain and discomfort.
- Allows doing a team activity. There are instances when negative thoughts fog the minds of these people, throwing them into the abyss of despair. Board games help them to keep the company and stay positive. With a companion by the side and a target to finish, they can drive their minds to absorb the positivity and happiness available around them.
- Board games help to retain their strategizing abilities giving the mind the requisite workout in the process.
Haven’t all these points in favor of board games got you thinking about the suitable options available? If yes, we have curated a list of suitable board games that you can play with patients with C6 level injuries and let them feel normal, positive, and happy.
Board games that playfully implicit in overcoming challenges of Quadriplegia
1. PlayMonster The Game of Things
It is a fun-filled guessing game. Players write the answer to the topic, and others guess who gave this response. It is suitable for people with partial physical abilities. It can be modified for complete quadriplegics by asking their guess (someone can volunteer).
This game is a beautiful pretext to spend a fun hour in the garden with family and friends. So, when you look for some solution to engage the physically challenged person in something joyful, you can plan this activity. The usual habits about the family and friends, and the chance to show that you know it all, help you feel a lot more normal and happy. This game is fun, brain-teasing and teamwork wrapped together.
2. Spontuneous – The Song Game – Sing It or Shout It
How about singing away the sadness and pain? This game is a great pretext to entertain bed-ridden or people with limited movements. Music is a great healer, and you get ample of it by playing this game. If you want to break into singing with a mission or just to work up the brain, this is the game meant for you. Players can show their singing skills and song knowledge.
All family members can indulge in this game, so it offers a good solution for bonding. Since songs are to be sung on a trigger word, it increases memory recall and boosts mood. Don’t be all religious and a stickler to rules; bring out your naughty side by changing the lyrics to add that trigger word, and generate lots of laughs around. It is a perfect weekend activity one can do with physically dependent seniors.
3. Toydaze Sling Foosball Fast Sling Puck Game
Nervous and muscular coordination needs exercising when you are stuck to a chair or bed for long. This sling puck game can be played to attain Speed Dexterity in the movements of hands. The game requires the person to take the correct aim and release the sling with requisite force.
This simple movement-based game earns the players a good exercising hour and a lot of points too! You can get the required workout to improve hand muscle flexibility, better quality hand-eye coordination, and activity to relax the mind. It is a perfect boredom killer and can add more activity to a day when you are looking for some fun-filled way to spend time.
4. Listography: The Game: May The Best List Win!
A perfect game to play even when restricted to bed! The family or friends can sit in a group, and one can draw the hint card. The others write the answers to that clue. The rules are designed so that players can display what they know better than others.
Played in a time-pressed manner, you attain dexterity in writing as well as recall capacity. Some of the interesting rules of this game are ‘Forgotten Four,’ ‘One-on-one,’ and others. According to the rules, it is decided whether you get to move spaces on the board or not. So, being fast and unique in the answer is your key to win! A game that requires limited physical movement can be an amazing brain teaser and a boredom killer too!
5. PlayMonster 5 Second Rule Game
An incidence of paralysis may freeze the body and fog thinking. Lots of medications cause mood swings and other side-effects. While exercising helps maintain physical capacity, board games like the 5 Seconds Rule Game can help have a good mental workout. Players pick out the card with a naming exercise to do.
They have to speak out as many words as possible associated with the topic in 5 seconds. The game improves the brain’s associative powers, memory recall and offers lots of moments of glory. A person with quadriplegia can get the requisite dose of mental exercise; also, they can improve dexterity by trying to hold cards.
6. Weird Things Human Search: A Search Guess Game
A computer is the biggest resource for knowledge and entertainment, even for those who cannot move out so freely. And Google is the ultimate information provider. While all the time Google is supposed to give intuitive search phrases, this game turns the table. In this gameplay, the players guess what will be the possible and most highly ranked search phrase from the incomplete hint provided.
The game jockey reads aloud the ranking of all phrases and gives scores. With limited knowledge of writing and that gained from lots of time spent on Google, you can be the star player of this game!
7. Telestrations
A game of quirky guessing and a lot of drawing! Tabletop games like Telestrations can allow a group of people to sit together and be their weirdest in thinking. One player draws something he saw, the other players guess it, the next player draws that guess, again, and on completion of round do all find how close or funnily away they were from the picture.
A perfect game for bringing togetherness in the air and lots of entertainment to offer, this board game can make every weekend super exciting and exceptionally engaging. No need to sulk in the corner; say it aloud with conviction to your quadriplegic friend with this game.
Wrapping up,
Tabletop games are no less than therapy for quadriplegics. These games should be on the to-do list when you have a person with limited physical abilities to care for. Playing these regularly boosts mood, and gives a suitable target to achieve that can help keep the mind occupied and have moments of joy with others.