FLEX YOUR MEMORY MUSCLES WITH MENTAL AEROBICS.Byline: Leslie Barker The Dallas Morning News Chalk in hand, Mary Burns Mary Burns is the name of two historically significant women.
``OK,'' she tells the dozen-plus folks gathered at Richardson Senior Center. ``Name all the words and phrases Words and Phrases® A multivolume set of law books published by West Group containing thousands of judicial definitions of words and phrases, arranged alphabetically, from 1658 to the present. you can that have `head' in them.'' Words fly through the air: Headline, headlight, heads or tails this side or that side; this thing or that; - a phrase used in throwing a coin to decide a choice, question, or stake, head being the side of the coin bearing the effigy or principal figure (or, in case there is no head or face on either side, that side which has , heads up, head first, headache, shrunken shrunk·en v. A past participle of shrink. shrunken Verb a past participle of shrink Adjective reduced in size Adj. 1. head, copperhead copperhead, poisonous snake, Ancistrodon contortrix, of the E United States. Like its close relative, the water moccasin, the copperhead is a member of the pit viper family and detects its warm-blooded prey by means of a heat-sensitive organ behind the nostril. , overhead, fat head, pothead pot·head n. Slang One who habitually smokes marijuana. Noun 1. pothead - someone who smokes marijuana habitually head - a user of (usually soft) drugs; "the office was full of secret heads" , headache. ``Beachhead beach·head n. 1. A position on an enemy shoreline captured by troops in advance of an invading force. 2. A first achievement that opens the way for further developments; a foothold: !'' someone calls out. A pause. ``That dates me.'' Another voice answers: ``You shouldn't worry about that here!'' The room laughs. The exercise has served its purposes: breaking the ice and stimulating cerebrums. Every Monday at the center, seniors gather for these Mental Aerobics. The idea is the brainchild of Kay Paggi, a former Odyssey of the Mind Odyssey of the Mind often called OM,is a creative problem-solving competition involving students from kindergarten though college. Team members work together at length to solve a predefined problem (the Long Term problem); and present their solution to the problem at a coach who works as a therapist and geriatric care manager. Before she started Mental Aerobics, Paggi was working with seniors at a wellness center in Plano. They told her they couldn't remember things. ``It's like computer overload; they just know so much,'' she says. ``Their ability to think, to use judgment, continues to build through life.'' But she'd see seniors retire, then start watching TV and stop balancing their checkbooks. They'd say, ``My daughter will do this or that for me.'' They bought into the myth of ``I'm older - I can't do this any more.'' Baloney, Paggi says. ``If I sat down in a chair tomorrow and said I couldn't walk, in a month I couldn't.'' Maybe, she mused, they don't think as well because they're not using their minds. Enter Mental Aerobics. In an early session, she asked seniors to tell two things: Their name and, using its first letter, an adjective to describe themselves. (Someone named Ann, for instance, could say ``amazing.'') As each person's turn came, he or she would repeat the names and descriptions of each person before. They all did much better than they thought they would, Paggi says. Monday before Election Day, participants completed puzzles and quizzes about U.S. presidents. Everyone received papers with 20 names on the left, 20 on the right. Men in one list lost presidential elections; the others won. The object: Match them. Try this: Whom did Grover Cleveland lose to in 1888? The women at my table seem especially knowledgeable. Cynthia Maddox Cynthia Maddox (born 1941) in is an American model who is best known for appearing on the cover of Playboy magazine five times in the early to mid 1960s, though she was never a playmate. and Joann Perkins have been here before. But it's the first time for Virginia McGrew. ``I'm married to a gardener, so in effect I'm a widow,'' she says with a little smile. ``I have an awful lot of time. I find I can't retain when I try to memorize. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. if it's senility senility (sənil`ətē), deterioration of body and mind associated with old age. Indications of old age vary in the time of their appearance. or what.'' When she works puzzles at home, it's quiet. Here, she'll have to get used to the noise. ``Part of the fun is sharing answers, not having to sit by yourself and think,'' Burns tells her. Fred Buelow, 78, has been coming since Paggi started Mental Aerobics in Plano, Texas. Retired from a very people-oriented administrative job, he lost that mental stimulation. But he's found it again. ``People who are just starting, they're afraid of answering with the wrong answer,'' he says. ``When you're there awhile, you recognize it doesn't matter if the answer's wrong. Nobody's going to ridicule you.'' He has noticed changes in several participants throughout the weeks. One woman used to be very quiet. Now she's speaking out a lot more. Burns, who runs a respite-care service for seniors, first came to Mental Aerobics with a client. For several weeks, she just sat there. Finally, she decided to try answering some of the questions. ``I've learned to do some things, like math problems, I wouldn't have tried before,'' she says. ``You find out your brain still works.'' People get hooked on it, Paggi says. They bring her brain teasers. One man brings her puzzles from Discover magazine. ``I can't begin to work them,'' she says. But if she gets stuck, she knows there's a roomful of people eager to help her out. |
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