Cognitive Stimulation Session for People with Alzheimer’s

Occupational therapist and University of Burgos professor Olalla Saiz, together with several of her students, proposes a cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s.

Below, we explain the goals of the intervention, the methodology, the schedule, the duration, and the activities chosen for the cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s.

Goals of the cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s

Different activities on the platform will be used to improve some of the cognitive abilities that are affected in the early stages of the disease.

There are also a number of specific goals:

• Maintain episodic memory,
• strengthen attention.

Methodology

• The activities will be carried out using the NeuronUP platform. This way, if any of your patients lives in another city, NeuronUP2GO (NeuronUP’s home sessions) lets you carry out the intervention and follow-up without having to travel.

Schedule for the cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s

The NeuronUP session will follow this schedule:

Activities	Session 1	Session 2
First to Fly	Easy level	Medium level
Waiter in Action	Easy level	Medium level
The Last Light On	Easy level	Medium level
Avoid the Ticket	Easy level	Medium level
Press Conference	Easy level	Medium level

Duration of the intervention

As shown in the schedule, each session will last 45 minutes, with one session per day, and the difficulty will increase as the sessions progress. Each activity will last 5–10 minutes.

Cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s

Below, we explain in detail the activities chosen for the cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s with NeuronUP:

1. First to Fly

What does it involve?

This activity involves memorizing which butterfly in a moving series flapped first.

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on episodic memory and inhibition.

Play by levels

The game is divided into 9 phases, with phase 1 being the easiest and phase 9 the hardest.

In our case, we will start this activity in the first session at an appropriate difficulty level and increase the difficulty in each session, as shown in the schedule.

2. Waiter in Action

What does it involve?

Users take on the role of waiters and have to keep track of the restaurant’s orders. They must serve each customer the dish they ordered, paying close attention, since the dishes keep changing. Here’s an example in the following video:

What does this activity work on?

Waiter in Action works on:

• Alternating attention,
• inhibition,
• sustained attention,
• selective attention,

Play by levels

The game is divided into 9 phases, with phase 1 being the easiest and phase 9 the hardest. The user moves up or down a level automatically based on their correct answers and mistakes.

3. The Last Light On

What does it involve?

It involves memorizing the position of a house’s windows and then reproducing it in the same order. The memorization time for the sequence is fixed. There is also a version of this exercise with unlimited memorization time, but in this case we chose the fixed version.

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on episodic memory.

Play by levels

The game has 12 phases, with phase 1 being the easiest and phase 12 the hardest.

4. Avoid the Ticket

What does it involve?

This game involves selecting the features of the squares to move forward as quickly as possible to avoid being caught by the officer.

What does this activity work on?

The main function this activity in the cognitive stimulation session for people with Alzheimer’s works on is processing speed, and its secondary function is sustained attention.

Play by levels

The game is divided into 12 phases, with phase 1 being the easiest and phase 12 the hardest.

5. Press Conference

What does it involve?

In this exercise, the user has to remember the order in which the journalists ask to speak and reproduce it in the same order.

What does this activity work on?

This activity works on:

• processing speed,
• sustained attention.

Play by levels

The game is divided into 12 phases, with phase 1 being the easiest and phase 12 the hardest.

In addition to Olalla Saiz, Nisma El Guannab El Boudakhani, Claudia Espinosa Gómez, Iria Fidalgo Martínez, and Nuria González Sanz contributed to this article.

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“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Sesión de estimulación cognitiva para personas con alzhéimer