What activities are used for severe cognitive impairment?
It is often complex to find activities for cognitive impairment. The vast majority of activities and games available on the market encounter one of two problems:
- They are too difficult: Exercises designed for healthy people, not taking into account the difficulties of a person with brain damage or dementia.
- They are activities with infantilized material: Exercises that are appropriate in level but that use childish materials and stimuli.
Therefore, finding cognitive activities that are simple enough but do not infantilize user sor patients becomes a challenge for the professional.
Protocol with activities for severe cognitive impairment
Rehametrics has a variety of pre-made protocols for different patients. These protocols are sessions designed by clinical experts that are adjusted to the specific needs and affected functions depending on patient and pathology.
We have developed different sessions with activities for severe cognitive impairment. These sessions include activities in several cognitive areas, all of them with a low difficulty level. The healthcare professional can also choose from a large number of individual activities and easy levels.
Sample session for severe cognitive impairment
Temporal orientation
It serves to reinforce orientation during the session without creating frustration as there is only one response option. Incorporating orientation activities into cognitive stimulation is beneficial for individuals with severe cognitive impairment.
Selective Attention
In this easy selective attention activity, the objective is to touch the screen when the indicated shape reaches the dark area. It is crucial that simple selective attention activities are included in an activity protocol for severe cognitive impairment.
Sustained Attention
In this sustained attention activity, the patient has to to touch all the geometric shapes that appear on the screen. Often the ability to pay attention for extended periods of time is impaired in people with severe cognitive impairment.
Processing speed
The objective of this simple activity for processing speed is to touch all the boxes falling from the sky before they hit the ground.
Language
An activity to train expressive language and phonological awareness is to find the picture that begins with the given syllable. In many cases of dementia and various cognitive impairments, language deficit is a primary concern.
Word-image association
In this activity for language, the patient has to associate a written word with its image.
Likewise, our activities are highly customizable and can be made easier in a variety of ways:
- Tutorials within the activities
- Adjustment of time pressure
- Pause the exercise and visualize it
- Being able to repeat the target stimuli of the activity
- Being able to remove distracting stimuli
