What Is Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy?
Cognitive rehabilitation offers retraining in thinking, using judgment, and making decisions. The main focus is to correct deficits in memory, concentration and attention, perception, learning, planning, sequencing, and judgment. Cognitive rehabilitation therapy (CRT) aims to enhance the person’s capacity to process and interpret information and improve the person’s ability to function in all aspects of family and community life.
Individuals may need to focus on restoring, strengthening, and sharpening cognitive functions impaired due to a brain injury, stroke, or another medical incident. In cognitive rehabilitation therapy, a clinical provider will work with patients by providing them with cognitive exercises to perform, hands-on, bridging activities, and discussion questions to help them learn and translate cognitive strategies to their everyday lives.
Does it Work?
Cognitive rehabilitation therapy is well-studied, and new research is always coming. Researchers have documented its positive impact for patients with brain injury, stroke, and multiple sclerosis. Cognitive rehabilitation therapy encompasses many therapeutic techniques, such as computerized cognitive training, neurofeedback, and assistive technology.
Are there multiple types of Cognitive Rehabilitation?
Yes, there are two different approaches to CRT: restorative and compensatory.
Restorative CRT
Restorative CRT’s goal is to improve cognitive function by reinstating or strengthening the functions a person has either lost due to an injury or continues to find challenging.
Example:
A person finds it difficult to remember what they need to do in a day or pay attention to tasks given to them by another person. To help with this, a medical professional may assign different memory tasks to improve their memory. A therapist may use worksheets that challenge memory or digital exercises that challenge memory functions.
Restorative CRT repeatedly challenges a person to practice skills so that they might be able to improve their cognitive deficiencies by using the concept of neuroplasticity.
Compensatory CRT
Compensatory CRT helps an individual work around their injury. Oftentimes, individuals use an assistive device such as:
- assistive speech devices
- calendars, memory tools, smart devices
- alarms to regain a person’s attention in specific contexts
The hope is that compensatory cognitive rehabilitation will be temporary until an individual builds up a new skill. Still, it may also be a long-term strategy when restoring a person’s functioning fully is impossible.
The Four Steps to Cognitive Rehabilitation:
There are four major steps to cognitive rehabilitation.
- Education
- Process training
- Strategy training
- Functional activities training
HappyNeuron Pro tools are developed to assist with steps two and three, process and strategy training.
Is HappyNeuron Pro a Restorative CRT or a Compensatory CRT?
Our tool is often used for restorative cognitive rehabilitation. Our functional activities help to stimulate and challenge all areas of cognition with 45 exercises we have an exercise that may help your patient.
Conditions that Benefit from Cognitive Rehabilitation
Multiple Sclerosis
This condition causes demyelination of the nervous system. Quality of life and social functioning improvements have been demonstrated using cognitive rehabilitation therapy for people with MS.
Stroke
Strokes can cause cognitive, psychosocial, and motor skill complications. Cognitive rehabilitation therapy may help patients with stroke relearn and compensate with new cognitive strategies to help them live more independently.
Tramuatic Brain Injury
Brain injuries can occur from birthing complications, falls, incidents of violence, sports, and motor vehicle accidents. Cognitive rehabilitation may help your patients with a TBI build back the essential cognitive functions.
Aphasia
With cognitive rehabilitation therapy, clinical providers can work with patients with aphasia to learn and implement effective communication strategies. This might help them to express themselves the way they want using written and spoken language.
OUR CUSTOMERS
Their Success is Our Success
We focus on supporting our therapists – large and small – by offering the best cognitive therapy software ever.
What People Say About Our Program
” I loved trying to find out how I could support them, how I could learn what they knew and how I could learn to tap into their knowledge and make communicating easier for them.”
Louise Kavanagh – Special Education Teacher – Dubai British School Jumeirah Park – Jumeirah Park, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Read more about the Innovation at Dubai British School Jumeriah Park in their Case Study
“[Clients] never get to a point where they are bored, because I have a lot of flexibility that way to keep them challenged and keep them moving. The cognitive remediation programs we are using have [those features] built in anyway”
Debra Bushong – MS, LPC-S – HOPE Program at UT Southwestern Medical Center – Dallas, TX – United States Read more about Debra and her research in her Case Study
“I’ve been able to set up a lot of HappyNeuron Pro programs for clients who did not want to meet for therapy in person. What HappyNeuron Pro has allowed us to have is a structure so we could underpin the client’s day and start their day with HappyNeuron Pro. HappyNeuron Pro allowed us to engage with clients by allowing us to look at their scores and have a conversation around that…”
Natalie Mckenzie – LCSW – BIS Services – Kent, England – United Kingdom Read more about Natalie and her practice in her Case Study
Improving control allows the client to see that they can do something that is challenging. This helps the client build confidence in themselves, which in turn brings optimism.
Taher Chugh – Sports Medicine, MD – Toronto Concussion Clinic – Toronto, ON, CA Read more about Toronto Concussion Clinic in their Case Study
I’m thankful for the timing when we met [the HappyNeuron Pro team] that we were able to get HappyNeuron Pro up and running because it was an important part of our transition to virtual occupational therapy.
Heather Condello – OT – Complex Injury Rehab – Pickering, ON, Canada Read more about Complex Injury Rehab in their Case Study
I have seen positive behavioral changes in the people that I work with. The staff and clients love HappyNeuron Pro.
Dyana Hagen – B.S.W. – InterCommunity Inc.’s Common Ground Learning Center – East Hartford, CT, USA Read more about Dyana in her Case Study
“[people considering using HappyNeuron Pro] should go for it. It’s worth the investment”
Ruth Mwaura – Clinical Psychologist – Thalia Psychotherapy – Nairobi, Kenya Read more about Ruth and her practice in her Case Study
“There are other companies I like. After 10 years of working with HappyNeuron Pro, the “gamelike” design is why we stuck with it.”
Kristin Hoffman – Rehab Specialist & SLP – iN2L – Denver, CO, USA Read more about Kristin and her work at iN2L in her Case Study
Every kid needs to be doing HappyNeuron Pro. Every school needs to be working on these skills. Every school in America should have a cognitive skill curriculum..
Kyra Minichan – SLP – The Cognitive Emporium – Hendersonville, TN – USA Read more about Kyra and her practice in her Case Study
Our favorite thing is to be able to break down into core cognitive domains, knowing every task the patient is doing touches upon overlapping cognitive skills, and it gives participants a sense of what skills they are working on.
Vocational Coach – WISE Employment – Melbourne – Australia Read more about WISE Employment in their Case Study
This program is something that really can benefit the well-being of the clients we serve. It gives us more resources and tools to help people.
Lisa Rae – Director of Business Development – Integrative Group Psychology Services – Chicago, IL – USA Read more about Lisa and her practice in her Case Study
“The team at HappyNeuron understands our customers’ needs and how iN2L can fit as a solution. It is an important aspect of any relationship, but in situations like this, it is particularly valuable.”
Chris Krause – Dir. of Research and Outcome – iN2L – Denver, CO, USA Read more about Chris and his work at iN2L in his Case Study
It was just enjoyable to see the results right at the moment. So once a patient is done with the group, I was able to get the results immediately and see what they did well on and what needed to still be improved. HappyNeuron Pro is just easy and accessible.
Hector Sigler – Director of Operations – Family Recovery Center – Lantana, FL – USA
We love this program! One of my success stories was the man who had a stroke. As a matter of fact, everybody noticed his progress after using HappyNeuron Pro.
Laura Argentine – LCSW – Integrative Group Psychology Services – Chicago, IL – USA Read more about Laura and her practice in her Case Study
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