Cognitive rehabilitation has been an effective part of brain injury therapy for quite some time, even though its importance was not widely known - even in the medical community. Invisible wounds are hard to treat. Medical personnel cannot see the wound. Even with the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other high tech methodologies, those wounds can remain invisible.
How do you take a picture that shows someone has forgotten the multiplication tables? One effect of Beth's acquired brain injury was just that: she could not remember how to multiply. A psychologist had her complete a battery of cognitive tests during the early days of her recovery. Dr. Charles Wood is now deceased but we will be forever grateful for his role in helping Beth gain admission to the Timber Ridge Ranch neuromedical facility.
Beth, however, knew she had forgotten how to multiply before she took those tests; she just didn't know why. Of course, readers of Brain Injury Survivor's Guide will remember that a great number of months passed between the date of her anoxic brain injury and the date of the cognitive testing.
Virtually every area of the brain has an impact on cognitive functioning. This impairment is shown in several important areas of daily life:
- Memory problems
- Perceptual problems
- Concentration problems
- Lack of Initiation
- Lack of comprehension or understanding
- Difficulty expressing thoughts and ideas
- Sequencing problems (steps to perform a task)
- Slowed responses
- Inflexibility (not open to new ideas or methods)
- Disorganization (unable to find things)
- Difficulty solving problems
- Problems learning new information
Importance of Cognitive Rehabilitation
Difficulty performing any of the twelve items listed above can drastically reduce a person's ability to experience a successful independent lifestyle. Independence is a major yearning for a person trapped inside a brain injury. Look at those items again. Imagine trying to have healthy social interaction with others while dealing with those issues. Think, too, about safety concerns.
An independent lifestyle means that a person is able to make choices. Making wise choices means being able to concentrate and make decisions. What do I do if the house catches on fire? What do I do if I have a flat tire on the car? What do I do if I miss the bus? What do I do if someone asks for my social security number or credit card number or bank account number?
Cognitive rehabilitation is important. Going to a rehabilitation facility or counselor for four months or ten months or 18 months is beneficial. It is also very costly. Professional counseling cannot do it all. Having lived with brain injury in our lives for eighteen years, we have learned quite a number of things.
Issues arise that you never before considered. Life changes with each passing second. A new person may enter your life. A new project of some sort may enter your life. A new decision must be made. Brain injury victims must re-learn how to live independently.
What You Can Do at Home
Cognitive therapy needs to become an integral part of daily life. Daily means just that. Each and every day the brain needs to be exercised. It needs to be challenged. But it needs to be challenged in a non-threatening way.
Beth and I developed numerous Word Games that can be downloaded through the Internet, printed in your home, and performed in a pressure-free environment. These word games are available in pdf format and can be printed on any computer's printer. All you need is a pdf reader and here's a link to a free pdf reader provided by the good people at FoxIt.
You can click on that free pdf reader link and save the file to your computer desktop. Then double-click the icon for the downloaded file, and the software will install itself on your computer.
Click here to see how our Cognitive Rehabilitation Word Game Quizzes work.
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Click here to check out our information about Brain Injury Rehab facilities.
