Age appropriate activities for adults?

Question

Any ideas for age appropriate activities for adults who are at about a preschool skill level?

Answer 1

1) Community access, taking public transit if possible. This can include selecting correct bus fare, appropriate behavior on the bus, identifying the proper bus stops, etc. If you take the bus to a shopping area, you can do some "window shopping" or make small purchases, including ordering meals at fast food outlets. (This is usually a favorite activity, and you can use picture communication cards for those who cannot express themselves verbally.) You can also go to the grocery store and make purchases.
2) Cooking projects. This is especially fun when the people involved have had a hand in choosing the menu and purchasing the food. Simple is good. Try making sandwiches, salads, heating up soup, toasting bread or English muffins, etc.
3) Exercise and fitness. This could include such activities as walking/ jogging, yoga, bowling, dancing, simplified sports, water activities, exercise bikes, stretching, relaxation, etc.
4) Arts and crafts. Use different media and materials, such as watercolors, colored sands, collage materials, clay, objects from nature, textiles, etc. You may be amazed at the creative gifts that certain "low-functioning" people have. Show examples of different art forms and give the people the appropriate materials. And remember that it's really the process of doing that's more important that the end product.
5) Gardening activities of all sorts.
6) Jobs of various sorts, from sweeping floors and wiping countertops to laundry, sorting recycling materials, cleaning up the environment, etc. Often people with disabilities aren't given the opportunity to be contributors or givers. It's important to our spiritual and emotional growth to be part of getting something done and making the world a better place in even a small way.

Remember that your clients don't need to be able to do every aspect of every activity independently in order to benefit from it. Partial participation, with assistance and support to complete the various tasks, gives valuable opportunities.

Answer 2

What comes to mind for me would be activities like:

1. Art Projects - Going to various locations and drawing what you see. Maybe going to museums or looking at books with different styles of art.

2. Cooking - Even simple things like making chocolate milk or peanut butter sandwiches.

3. Music - Dancing to music (hokey pokey teaches left and right), making home-made instruments. Creating your own songs that help them remember an address, phone number, or spelling of a last name.

4. Movies - At home or at a theater.

5. Visiting people ar their places of employment - Sort of a Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood field trip. Also meeting policemen, firemen, crossing guards, postal workers.

Those are what I can think of, right now. They seem like activities that could help a person learn to be a little bit self-reliant, but also have fun.

Answer 3

Are there some easy assembly crafts that they can sell at the local farmer's market? That would be a good activity -- and they would then have the experience with handling money too at the same time.

Answer 4

Coloring book (some get offended) , Play Dough, and other simple things like that.