When an individual experiences a cognitive impairment, seeking treatment that will help them exercise their cognitive skills can be highly beneficial. Beginning cognitive rehabilitation may feel daunting, but don’t worry. Cognitive exercises are essentially a workout for the mind, offering potential improvements in the affected cognitive skills – and they can be fun!
Individuals and caretakers starting the cognitive rehabilitation journey may wonder:
There are many examples of cognitive exercises – let’s explore some of them!
There are cognitive exercises in different formats, however, digital cognitive exercises offer some unique benefits. Digital cognitive exercise programs like HappyNeuron Pro offer indispensable features such as adaptable exercises, automatic tracking, and printable reports. This means clinicians can take any guesswork from their patient’s treatment plan. Exercises are easily adjusted to the appropriate difficulty level to challenge the patient adequately. Automatic tracking means that the clinician can quickly see how the patient is progressing and adjust the treatment accordingly.
The type of digital exercises needed will depend on the individual’s specific cognitive deficits. Some of the most common cognitive deficits are in memory, attention, language skills, visual-spatial abilities, and executive functions.
Memory is a cognitive ability that encodes, stores and recalls information. Utilizing memory requires the individual to hold information in their brain and then recall it accurately. Different exercises work on different types of memory, such as working memory, verbal memory, or spatial memory.
These exercises can be utilized for patients dealing with any memory deficits. For example, individuals who have experienced a brain injury or are living with dementia may benefit from completing memory exercises.
Attention skills are essential for individuals to be able to receive stimuli, such as visual or verbal information. All of our exercises require an individual to pay attention, however, some exercises target focused attention skills more than others. In attention exercises, the individual may be asked to find one different element among many matching elements or watch a moving element for a long enough time to understand the pattern it is making. These exercises may strengthen attention skills needed in daily life, such as driving a car or engaging in a conversation.
Attention exercises can be utilized in many situations. For example, a patient who has experienced a stroke, brain injury, or psychiatric disorder may benefit from practicing their attention skills.
Language skills encompass a range of abilities, such as speaking, recalling written or spoken information, reading, spelling, and utilizing context clues. These exercises can include activities such as matching up fragments of words, recalling the order of words in a passage, or categorizing different words.
Language skills are utilized daily to receive information and communicate with others. These skills are used in working, completing errands, conversing with family and friends, and comprehending information taught at school. Individuals who experience a brain injury or a stroke commonly experience difficulties with language skills.
Visual-spatial skills allow us to orient ourselves in our environments, perceive objects around us, mentally construct a scene, and mentally manipulate objects. Exercises for visual-spatial skills can include activities such as mentally rotating different objects to see if they match, or choosing which point of view of a group of objects is accurate.
Visual-spatial skills are needed for motor skills such as writing and walking, orienting oneself on a map, as well as navigating an environment – such as walking through room full of people without bumping into anyone. These skills can be affected by various conditions such as stroke, brain injury, or MS.
The executive functions are some of the most complex functions of the brain. They refer to skills such as problem-solving, planning, making decisions, regulating behavior, and controlling impulses that may not be appropriate. Executive function exercises include complex tasks such as strategizing how to sort objects with limited moves, completing mathematical calculations, and deciphering complex language puzzles.
In daily life, executive functioning plays a crucial role. A high level of executive functioning is required to perform well in work or school, solve or avoid interpersonal conflicts, and stick to a schedule. Executive function skills are often impaired due to psychiatric disorders, brain injury, or stroke.
Worksheets provide another angle on cognitive exercises. Some exercises may feel more difficult on paper or may require the individual to think about how to complete the exercises in a different way. They are a great way to supplement digital cognitive exercises.
While mindfulness practices are not necessarily part of cognitive rehabilitation, they can be used supplementally to help patients learn to calm and focus the mind. Keeping a calm and focused mind is a critical skill in daily life, such as when stuck in traffic, focusing on a presentation, or communicating with loved ones.
Additionally, the process of practicing cognitive skills can be frustrating. Enabling patients to cultivate a calm mind can help to ease frustrations that may arise during the cognitive rehabilitation journey.
The concept of “bridging” refers to bringing the cognitive skills that a patient is working on into their daily life. Practicing cognitive skills at home or in a clinical setting is essential for treating cognitive deficits, however, at a certain point, practicing how to utilize the skills in real life may be even more valuable. Bridging activities can help patients to ease back into their daily lives after recovering from, for example, a brain injury or stroke.
Bridging activities can be completed one-on-one with the clinician and patient or in a group setting.
These examples of cognitive exercises show the range of activities that can help individuals during rehabilitation when they are recovering from a stroke, injury, or illness. The exercises can also be used with individuals who cannot necessarily recover from their conditions but can benefit from stimulating their cognitive functions, such as in cases of dementia or learning disabilities. With digital and physical cognitive exercises, clinicians can have a broad range of tools to help their clients care for their cognitive health.
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