We present a new exercise to promote attention and impulse control with adults that we are sure you will really like: Waiter in Action!
What does it consist of?
Users, who take on the role of waiters, must pay attention to the restaurant orders. They must serve each customer the ordered dish with great attention, since the dishes will be changing.
That is, they have to monitor a task constantly while shifting their focus of attention variably. In addition, they must adapt to changes in the order of the exercise.
All of this makes it a great exercise to promote attention and impulse control.
In the following video we show you an example of how to work with this exercise:
What does this activity train?
Waiter in Action trains:
- Alternating attention,
- selective attention,
- sustained attention,
- inhibition.
Ways to work with this game
Waiter in Action is a game and as such can be worked on in two ways:
Play by levels
The game is divided into phases. Phase 1 is the easiest and phase 9 is the most difficult.
The user will move up or down levels automatically according to their correct or incorrect responses. In addition, the professional can choose the phase manually.
2. Activity customization
In addition, customized phases can be created to adapt them to each person’s specific needs.
2.2 Parameters
In addition, we can limit some parameters of the activity such as:
- The number of elements on the screen: number of diners and number of foods,
- alternation,
- variety of elements,
- the number of target stimuli,
- the scoring criteria: totals, errors and omissions,
- amount of stimuli,
- stimulus display time,
- maximum errors.
2.1. General aspects
You can choose other general aspects such as:
- The number of exercises,
- the maximum time,
- whether you want a visible timer for the activity or not,
- whether to include an inactivity warning or not,
- modify the performance instructions.
Languages to work with this exercise to promote attention and impulse control
This activity can be used in Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.
Why did we create this activity?
This activity comes to life thanks to the suggestion of María Cristina Rosa, coordinator of the Neuropsychology service at ADEMO-CREN (Multiple Sclerosis Association of Huelva and its Center for Rehabilitation of Neurological Diseases). Rosa and her team often use with their users who have neurological sequelae Animals Restaurant, the children’s version of Waiter in Action, and they asked us to make an adult version.
Children’s version
As we just told you, Waiter in Action has a children’s version called Animals Restaurant. In this case, children must give each animal its favorite food. They must be very attentive, since, from time to time, the animals change their tastes.
If you liked this exercises to promote attention and impulse control, you might also be interested in these articles:
“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Ejercicio para fomentar la atención y el control de impulsos: Camarero en acción
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