Occupational therapist and professor at the University of Burgos, Olalla Saiz, explains in this article, together with several of her students, how to carry out an intervention to stimulate the cognitive functions in geriatrics with NeuronUP.
What is geriatrics?
Geriatrics is a branch of medicine that brings together specialized personnel who can provide comprehensive and complete care to older adults.
The scope of geriatrics is characterized by:
- Older adults over 60-65 years with illness that tends to disability and/or with multimorbidity with psychological and social factors that influence the course of the disease. This is due to population aging, since in old age the incidence and prevalence of degenerative diseases increases;
- greater tendency toward the chronicity of diseases,
- greater need for continuous care and social resources,
- geriatric syndromes: cognitive impairment (dementia), depressive disorder, acute confusional state (delirium) and palliative care in geriatrics.
Objectives of the intervention in geriatrics
The main objective of intervention in geriatrics is to improve the user’s cognitive functions to promote their occupational areas.
In addition, a series of specific objectives are proposed:
- Increase the cognitive function of attention,
- implement the development of memory,
- encourage spatio-temporal orientation.
Cognitive session in geriatrics
First, to work on attention, the following activities will be carried out:
1. Count Stimuli by Type
What does it consist of?
This activity consists of counting how many stimuli of each type there are, that is, counting the number of elements of each type.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on selective attention.
Duration
5 minutes.
2. Copy Letter Matrixes
What does it consist of?
In this exercise the user must copy incomplete matrices by looking at a model matrix.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on sustained attention.
Duration
5 minutes.
3. Size comparison
What does it consist of?
In this worksheet one must determine the size relationship between a series of images.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on: processing speed and visual gnosis.
Duration
5 minutes.
Secondly, to work on the orientation in an intervention for cognitive stimulation in geriatrics the following activities will be carried out: cognitive stimulation in geriatrics
4. Location in Time
What does it consist of?
This activity consists of placing the hour, day, month, year and season, choosing the correct option among several possibilities.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on the Time Orientation.
Duration
5 minutes.
5. Objects, places and professionals
What does it consist of?
In this exercise the user will have to match various objects with the places where they are obtained and the professionals who are responsible for them.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on special orientation and shopping.
Duration
5 minutes.
6. Household Objects
What does it consist of?
This activity consists of placing where in the house the various proposed objects would be located.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on special orientation.
Duration
5 minutes.
Finally, to work on memory in an intervention for cognitive stimulation in geriatrics the following activities will be carried out:
7. Greater than and less than
What does it consist of?
This generator consists of writing the numbers immediately smaller and larger than a series of numbers.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on semantic memory.
Duration
5 minutes.
8. Recycle Your Trash
What does it consist of?
In this game the user will have to place the different types of waste in their corresponding bin.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on:
- Reasoning,
- sustained attention,
- semantic memory,
- episodic memory,
- cooking and cleaning.
Duration
5 minutes.
9. Home Delivery
What does it consist of?
This activity consists of remembering the order in which the buildings light up and reproducing them in reverse.
What does this activity work on?
This cognitive stimulation exercise works on working memory and episodic memory.
Duration
5 minutes.
Conclusions about the intervention with NeuronUP for cognitive stimulation in geriatrics
- The conclusion we draw when doing these activities is that ICTs are a much better tool for an intervention of cognitive stimulation in geriatrics than we might previously have thought. They help us as professionals when intervening, as well as in observing the patient’s progress, since NeuronUP, allows us to observe everything the user does.
- Likewise, the NeuronUP platform offers endless possibilities, allowing you to choose the target group for each activity, modulating the level, and choosing the function to work on.
- In terms of our professional life we could come to use this tool, since apart from the wide range of activities it offers, they are like “minigames”. They make the session not become tedious and allow the user to maintain the concentration in an appropriate way throughout it, as well as helping them in a more dynamic way to improve their cognitive functions.
In addition to Olalla Sáiz, Jon Arancón García, María del Carmen Rodríguez Gómez, María Sánchez García and Alba Vivar Robles contributed to the preparation of this article.
If you liked this post about how to carry out a intervention with NeuronUP in geriatrics, we recommend you take a look at these publications:
“This article has been translated. Link to the original article in Spanish:”
Intervención con NeuronUP para la estimulación cognitiva en geriatría
Childhood disorders: what they are, types, examples, and intervention methodologies
Leave a Reply