Activities for people with dementia, to enjoy together

An active mind, at every age

Health bodies agree on something simple and hopeful: keep doing things that use your mind. The World Health Organization says lifelong learning and mentally stimulating surroundings should be encouraged for everyone, at every age, and its 2026 guidelines count everyday activities such as reading, storytelling and playing games as cognitive stimulation.¹ A group of 27 leading dementia researchers, writing for The Lancet, say it is important to be cognitively, physically and socially active in mid and late life.²

That stays true after a diagnosis. In the NHS's own words, having dementia doesn't mean you have to stop doing the things you enjoy, and its advice lists online games and puzzles among the ways to stay engaged with others and enjoy a range of activities.³

Numbers can be part of it. In an online study of more than 19,000 healthy adults aged 50 to 93, people who did number puzzles more often tended to score better on tests of reasoning, attention and memory: good news for anyone who enjoys numbers.⁴

Activities you enjoy come first

NICE, which advises the NHS in England, puts enjoyment first. Its dementia guideline recommends offering a range of activities to promote wellbeing that are tailored to the person's preferences.⁵ Choosing an activity you like, and doing it your way, is exactly where a few easy sums can fit.

NICE also recommends group cognitive stimulation therapy, or CST, for people living with mild to moderate dementia.⁵ CST brings small groups together for themed sessions of enjoyable activities, chat and games that get everyone thinking, remembering and talking. A Cochrane review of 37 trials with 2,766 people found that cognitive stimulation gave people living with mild to moderate dementia small, short term benefits in thinking and clear improvements in communication and social interaction, with no harmful effects reported,⁶ and the NHS says the evidence suggests CST benefits people with mild to moderate dementia.⁷

CST is a group programme run by trained staff. Math Workout is something simpler that you choose for yourself: an enjoyable activity at home, at your own pace, and even better with company.

Simple number games and reading aloud

In Japan, the neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima and his colleagues built a gentle daily routine of reading aloud and simple arithmetic: about 15 to 20 minutes a day, roughly five days a week, at a level each person could manage with ease.⁸

• In a small study in a Japanese care home, 16 residents living with Alzheimer type dementia spent a short time most days reading aloud and doing simple sums, with staff on hand. Six months later they scored better on a short bedside test of thinking skills such as planning and self control, while a comparison group of 16 residents scored slightly lower.⁹
• In a trial with 124 healthy people aged 70 to 86, those who did a little reading and simple arithmetic every day for six months improved on tests of planning and attention and of processing speed, and the gains were still there six months later.¹⁰
• A later trial with 64 healthy older adults found that six months of the same routine improved scores on tests of self control, focus, speed and recalling stories, compared with a group waiting their turn.¹¹

These were programmes of paper worksheets, run with staff on hand. Their ingredients will feel familiar: short sessions of simple sums, pitched to feel easy. In Math Workout that might be a ten question round of Add & Subtract, one of the classic workouts, on Easy, or Mental Math Master, which reads each sum aloud for you to answer.

Brain games for older adults, at your own speed

Practice makes the practised thing easier, at any age. In ACTIVE, a US trial with 2,832 adults aged 65 to 94, ten group sessions of training in memory, reasoning or quick visual search each improved the ability practised, and the gains were still there two years later.¹²

Math Workout keeps a stopwatch and your best time for anyone who enjoys trying to beat it, and in the quick workouts there is no time limit on a sum: the clock only times the whole round. Math Adapt AI, our patent-pending adaptive engine, leans each round a little toward the sums you find harder, and offers a step up only after a few clean, quick rounds, and only if you say yes. You can also set each workout's level yourself in Settings.

Dementia activities at home: little and often, better together

Little and often is easy to keep up. In a study of how habits form, daily actions repeated in the same situation became more automatic over time, and missing a single day did not materially hold the habit back.¹³ A round after breakfast, or with the afternoon cup of tea, is a fine place to start. More on the science of a daily habit.

Company matters too. The World Health Organization says social participation is strongly connected to good health and wellbeing throughout life.¹ The NHS says keeping in touch with people is good for your confidence and mental wellbeing, and that a shared activity can make both of you happier and able to enjoy quality time together.³ In a UK trial with 356 people living with dementia and their family carers, doing enjoyable, mentally stimulating activities together at home led the people living with dementia to rate their relationship with their carer more positively, and carers' quality of life improved.¹⁴

World Challenge gives the whole family one shared thing a day: the same 50 questions for every player in the world, to try together and talk about. In the Android app, a gentle reminder can come once a day, only on days you haven't played yet.

• Classic workouts
• Mental Math Master
• Times Table Master
• The daily habit

Games for people with dementia to enjoy with family

Every workout here starts gently: new players start on Easy, and a round can be as short as ten sums.

• Add & Subtract, Multiply & Divide: simple sums, ten at a time if you like.
• Mental Math Master: each sum is read aloud; tap Hear again to listen once more. After two misses the sum appears written down, and after a third the answer is shown. In the Android app in English, Say It! lets you answer out loud.
• Times Table Master: the tables many of us learned at school. With Write it, you write the answer with your finger instead of tapping keys.
• Method Lab: friendly, step by step ways to work sums out in your head, five of them free.
• World Challenge: one daily set of 50 questions, the same for everyone.
• For younger family members: Galaxy Run and Math Run turn the same sums into fast games, so grandchildren can play alongside.

We hear from you

People living with dementia have written to tell us they use Math Workout to keep their minds active. Thank you for telling us.