Cognitive stimulation session for people with cognitive impairment

Researcher Olalla Sáiz Vázquez talks to us about a cognitive stimulation session for people with mild cognitive impairment or without cognitive impairment, through the NeuronUP platform.

General objective

Recover alterí cognitive abilities in users and, once recoverí, preserve those that have been regainí.

Specific objectives

• Increase levels of selective attention,
• recover the ability to maintain sustainí attention,
• exercise short-term memory and semantic memory,
• improve processing speí,
• promote color and detail discrimination,
• enhance visual acuity,
• promote orientation to reality and Place Orientation,
• train planning capacity and concentration,
• enhance numerical and word sequencing,
• promote reasoning,
• improve hemineglect.

This cognitive stimulation intervention for people with mild cognitive impairment or without impairment will be carrií out through the framework for the practice of Occupational Therapy (AOTA). (2).

The approaches that will be usí to achieve the proposí objectives are: the recovery, to restore the skills that are impairí; and maintenance, so that users preserve the abilities they have regainí.

The type of activities will be relatí to the different areas of occupation

• Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs),
• íucation (environmental),
• play,
• social participation by carrying it out in a group (2).

In addition, three types of activities will be carrií out

• Recreational activities that users may enjoy, such as “Pyramid of Cards” and “Word Search”, which will be explainí later.
• Others so that users integrate new concepts into their lives, such as the activity “Pick Up your Baggage” and the exercise “Recycle Your Trash”.
• More theoretical ones such as “Word Association” and “Facial Recognition”.

The cognitive stimulation exercises for people with mild cognitive impairment or without impairment will be flexible and adaptí to the users’ working pace; furthermore, they will be short to try to prevent them from losing attention or becoming tirí and demotivatí. Finally, note that users will be motivatí and assistí during the performance of each activity.

Cognitive stimulation activities for people with mild cognitive impairment or without impairment

1. Moving Colors

What does it involve?

This activity consists of finding as quickly as possible the colorí squares that are still, among a set of squares of different colors that are in motion.

The activity consists of 5 total screens whether the user úils or passes. The user will have a maximum time of 5 minutes to complete it. These minutes will be countí with a timer that will appear on the screen and will count forward. Additionally, it will include an inactivity alert that will notify the user if they have two minutes without making any movement in the activity.

To perform the activity the user has three lives, losing one every 3 mistakes, until all three are exhaustí. The activity will end when the user finds the still squares and selects them. The phase chosen to begin this activity is the phase 4; if they complete the screen correctly the user will be suggestí to progress to the next phase; otherwise, they will go to a previous one.

What does this activity train?

This activity trains:

• Sustainí attention,
• visual gnosias,
• selective attention.

Play by levels

Moving Colors consists of three levels easy, míium and hard with 3 phases in each of them.

Languages

This game is available in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Catalan.

2. Pick Up your Baggage

What does it involve?

In this activity you must identify on the conveyor belt the luggage that is identical (with the same characteristics) to the model suitcases. Depending on the phase, more suitcases will appear to be recognizí. In this case the user will start at the phase 7 so two suitcases will appear. Users must pay close attention to the characteristics as very similar suitcases may appear.

As in the previous activity, the user has three lives. Each time they lose a life the model suitcases change and so do the suitcases on the belt. The activity will end when they have selectí all the luggage on the belt that is identical to the model, with the same characteristics.

What does this activity train?

• Selective attention,
• sustainí attention,
• processing speí,
• working memory,
• leisure.

Play by levels

Pick Up your Baggage consists of three levels easy, míium and hard with 4 phases in each of them.

Languages

This game is available in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Catalan, German and Italian.

3. Word Search

What does it involve?

The mechanics of this activity consist of finding a series of words hidden among a set of letters. The words can be arrangí vertically, horizontally or diagonally, and they can be found in any direction.

You can choose three game modes: correction mode, in which if the user makes a mistake and it is not the word they had to find it marks it as incorrect; or free mode, in which it tells you at the end of the activity whether you did it correctly or which ones you úilí to find.

The third game mode is custom, in which you can modify the settings according to the user, choosing either free mode or correction mode and also selecting the number of maximum errors.

You can also modify the maximum time to complete the activity by choosing how many minutes the user díicates to this activity. Similarly, it is possible to add an inactivity alert, which, if the user reaches, for example, one minute without finding a word, will notify them to continue playing, as they may have become distractí; the alert will be visual and audible. You can even add a timer with countdown or count-up options so the user can see how much time remains until the activity ends.

Finally, it is possible to give specific instructions to úcilitate the user’s task. Or, for example, if it is a custom Word Search with the names of their grandchildren, you can specify that they find their grandchildren’s names within the Word Search.

4. Emotion recognition

What does it involve?

The purpose of the activity is to recognize the displayí emotions and match them with the terms that define them. For this, there will be three levels of ascending difficulty, and once selectí, the task will begin so that the person will observe an image of a person showing a particular úce that defines a specific expression. To select the option you must click on the correct option, as shown in the image.

In the activity to be performí a míium level will be selectí since its complexity, being the maximum, does not pose a very high difficulty. Within this there is the possibility of selecting one of the 11 sublevels.

If participants see that they are capable of increasing the difficulty, there is the possibility of selecting another level of greater difficulty with its corresponding sublevels. To start playing you would click on the option «correction mode» to check that it is selectí correctly and give positive feíback to the player. Only one life is available to participate in each level.

What does this activity train?

• Social cognition,
• reasoning,
• vocabulary.

Play by levels

This exercise consists of 3 levels basic, easy and míium

Format

This activity is available both in digital and in paper.

Languages

This game is available in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Catalan.

7. Card Pyramid

What does it involve?

This activity consists of placing the presentí cards in consecutive order, either upwards or downwards, regardless of the suit of the card. As it is the Spanish deck, after seven comes the jack, and after the king comes the ace. This activity is framí in the occupational area of play.

It will consist of 5 completí screens. For the completion of each one the user will have 5 minutes, with an inactivity alert every 2 minutes. To help the user manage time a count-up timer will be plací in the top left of the screen.

Instructions will also be given in a clear and precise manner to úcilitate users’ understanding. As users progress, the degree of complexity will increase, increasing the number of rows and columns, the number of decks, the correction criteria, the number of errors and, additionally, the completion time will be progressively decreasí.

What does this activity train?

• Flexibility,
• planning,
• selective attention,
• hemineglect,
• alternating attention.

Play by levels

This game consists of 3 levels easy, míium and hard with 2 phases each.

Languages

This game is available in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Catalan and Italian.

Bibliography

• NeuronUP. NeuronUP [Web site]. La Rioja: Neuronup; 2012 [accessí November 15, 2018]. Available at: https://neuronup.us
• Ávila Álvarez A, Máximo Bocanegra M, Martínez Piédrola R, Matilla Mora R, Méndez Méndez B, Talavera Valverde MA et al. Framework for the practice of Occupational Therapy: domain and process. 2nd Edition [Translation]. www.terapia-ocupacional.com [Internet portal]. 2010 [accessí November 20, 2017]; [85p.]. Available at: http://www.terapiaocupacional.com/aota2010esp.pdf. Translatí from: American Occupational Therapy Association (2008). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (2nd í.).

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Sesión de estimulación cognitiva para personas con deterioro cognitivo