Cognitive Rehabilitation And Cognitive Development

The number of people living with dementia worldwide was estimated to be 47.47 million in 2015, reaching 75.63 million in 2030 and 135.46 million in 2050 (WHO, 2015). As the disease progresses the person with dementia experiences loss in memory, certain personality traits, expressive abilities and other skills. Cognitive impairment eventually compromises the ability of person with dementia to carry out activities of daily living and other tasks in daily life. This decline in functional ability posits a huge challenge for maintaining health, wellbeing and quality of life of people with dementia. Therefore, issues related to wellbeing of people with dementia should be carefully examined and

Cognitive stimulation can help to slow the decline of dementia in the early stages. Stimulation helps to keep the processes of the brain functioning.

Rehabilitation, what is rehabilitation? Rehabilitation is the action of restoring someone to a normal life through training and therapy after incarcerated, addiction or illness. Rehabilitation can be used for an offender who has committed a crime and is incarcerated, someone who is struggling with addiction or illness. Rehabilitation was originated in 1779 by the British Government as part of the Penitentiary Act, rehabilitation would consist of punishment along with treatment for the offenders. (Benjamin Disraeli 2004). The purpose of rehabilitation is to treat the offender in order for the offender to return to society and be able to contribute, rehabilitation is also a punishment for breaking a law.

Dementia effects your memory and a person’s ability to achieve a normal everyday task and activities.

A study by Gaitán (2013) tested the hypothesis that participants with a mild cognitive impairment and mild Alzheimer’s disease who received CBCT and TCT would improve more than the participants who only received TCT. This study included three one-hour sessions three days a week over a period of three months. Sixty participants completed this study and were divided into two groups; participants receiving both CBCT and TCT and participants receiving only TCT. In TCT activities included using the traditional pen and paper to complete exercises based on improving cognitive functions such as attention, memory, calculation and language. An online cognitive training program was designed and used for participants in the CBCT and TCT group. The online cognitive training program intended to aid cognitive functions such as executive function, perception, recognition and spatial orientation.

Dementia is a debilitating disease that slowly destroys the mind from within, slowly destroying people's memories, movement and cognitive ability until taking the person's life. With a steady decline from two to three years and a more aggressive decline from three year to five years where it enters its final stage, normally resulting in death (Willis, Tennstedt, Marsiske, Ball, Elias, Koepkem, Morris, Rebok, Unverzagt, Stoddard & Wright, 2006). However while currently there is no cure for Dementia, during the two to three year span the disease can be delayed and symptoms can be minimised through a form of treatment (Willis et al., 2006;Gates, Sachdev, Singh & Valenzuela, 2011). Known as Cognitive training, defined as the targeting of specific areas of cognitive function through specific techniques to help delay the symptoms of Dementia (Jean, Bergeron, Tbivirge & Simard, 2010).

Hein completed a meta-analysis and found that exercising for a mean duration of 23 weeks has positive effects on cognition and behavior. Furthermore physical activity is both therapeutic to those already diagnosed with dementia, and associated with a 28% reduced risk of developing dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, and it is characterized by development of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that cause the hippocampus to atrophy. Physical activity also decreases the risk of development of Alzheimer’s dementia by targeting both the neurofibrillary tangles, and senile

At the clinic, patients with Alzheimer’s Disease undergo a series of brain exercises that are used to stimulate the brain in the areas of memory and personality for two weeks at a time. After stimulating the parts of the brain that had previously deteriorated, some patients have begun to participate in activities or recall memories they had not been able to in a very long time. For example, some patients began to drive, bake, and remember their grandchildren’s name. The goal of this clinic is to slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s so the patients can communicate and live a functioning life as long as possible. After partaking in the brain exercises, it is crucial for patients to continue to use their brain by thinking and talking about

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, symptoms, probable causes, cognitive training, cognitive rehabilitation and cognitive stimulation, stages of Alzheimer’s disease, duration of Alzheimer’s disease.

Moreover, relaxation training and stress management is offered to patient experiences a large amount of stress in their daily life, which may support memory improvement. For example, progressive muscle relaxation training is thought to improve memory in elderly with high anxiety levels (Yesavage 2007). Additionally, psychotherapy is offered and proves to be effective in the treating patients experiencing depression after the stroke (Mödden 2010). Overall, a wide variety of rehabilitation treatment is available that aids the patient’s return into he or her routine. However, similar to the neurological assessments it is also of question how well rehabilitation training generalize to real-world

Keep your mind active. Mentally stimulating activities, such as reading, solving puzzles and playing word games, and memory training might delay the onset of dementia and decrease its effects.

A longitudinal, one year follow-up (38) study investigated the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation on executive functioning in early dementia. Authors evaluated the efficacy of neuropsychological training (TNP) in early dementia patients treated with ChEIs, compared with patients treated only with ChEIs and patients receiving none of them. The study included 59 subjects between 63 and 78 years of age who were randomized into three groups, namely, ChEIs only (n=22), ChEIs plus TNP (n=15) or none of them (22). Cognitive rehabilitation or TNP comprised of memory training (focused on immediate verbal, visual and spatial memory), Attention training (focused on divided, sustained attention and alertness). Language training (focused on lexical and phonological abilities), Abstract reasoning training (focused on manipulation of concepts,

Researchers have investigated the effectiveness of cognitive training and rehabilitation in the improvement of cognition in individuals with Parkinson’s. Such programs involve basic skills training to reduce impairment and increase engagement in daily adaptive activities. The programs may target different cognitive domains such as attention and visuospatial awareness among others as necessary depending on the patient (Calleo, et al., 2012). One important aspect of cognitive training, also known as brain training, is the use of games to improve cognition. A study by Owen and colleagues (2010) investigating the effects of a computerized online brain training tasks showed improvements in reasoning, planning, attention and visuospatial skills,

Attention is the cognitive function which mediates all the other cognitive domains. If an individual has impaired attention capacity, the performance on other cognitive tasks is likely to get affected. In a recent study (20) it is stated that mild AD cases have poor selective attention which is likely to get improved through cognitive rehabilitation, thereby boosting the process of learning and the quality of daily life among these patients. The main aim of the study was to review the effectiveness of the cognitive rehabilitation on selective attention of people with moderate cognitive impairment (early AD). It was a quasi-experimental study with pre/post testing. The study comprised of 40 patients, randomly divided into experimental and

Out of the rapidly inclining population in the world, there are people who develop dementia every 66 seconds(“2016 Alzheimer’s Disease”). Being such a common disease in the elderly, there are 47.5 million people in the world with this disease(“2016 Alzheimer’s Disease”). Once families start to realize that their parents and grandparents have developed this, they start to wonder if they are able to live on their own. Within a few months, a decision is made whether if it is best for them to be put into a nursing home. Most often, those with dementia do happen to end up in nursing homes. Many wonder if being put into a nursing home will actually cause their dementia and their ability to live on their own to worsen. With the effects of activities, this could change. Activities help slow the deterioration of the brain(Smith). The activities and exercises performed by nursing homes to help improve the overall cognitive development in dementia patients. Nursing homes should induct purposeful daily activities to improve cognitive, social, and psychological development in dementia care