Cognitive Rehabilitation

 

What is cognitive rehabilitation?

Cognitive rehabilitation services are designed to address injury-related difficulties in functioning related to:

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  • attention

  • learning and memory

  • organization and planning

  • visuoperception

  • problem-solving

  • social communication skills

  • self-monitoring

  • self-awareness

These services teach skills and help clients make adaptations in order to maximize their safety, daily functioning, independence, social participation, and quality of life.

 

What are the goals of cognitive rehabilitation?

Services may be provided in individual or group sessions that focus on progressing in a stepwise manner to achieve long-term goals. Cognitive rehabilitation emphasizes the following approaches to achieve goals, as outlined by the Cognitive Rehabilitation Task Force of the Brain Injury Special Interest Group (BI-ISIG) of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM):

  • Problem orientation, awareness, and goal setting: Assisting individual with recognizing specific problem(s) that require intervention and working together to establish meaningful short- and long-term goals.

  • Compensation: Providing individual with tools to function effectively despite persisting or chronic difficulties.

  • Internalization: Increasing gradually the individual's ability to utilize the practiced strategies with a goal of making the application of these strategies more "automatic."

  • Generalization: Assisting individual with applying strategies in a wider variety of contexts to enhance everyday functioning.

 

What is the approach to cognitive rehabilitation?

Identification of targets for treatment and development of a treatment plan takes place through comprehensive neuropsychological assessment of an individual's cognitive strengths and limitations. This evaluation may take place at our Center or may have been completed at an outside provider and utilized by our staff to guide treatment goals.

Treatment sessions are focused on assisting an individual with acquisition, application, and adaptation of strategies to maximize functioning.

Strategies employed to address functional difficulties may include both external and internal approaches.

  • What is meant by external strategies?

    • External strategies are those external to the individual, including such devices as a memory notebook, electronic devices, or other task-specific aids.

  • What is meant by internal strategies?

    • Internal strategies involve learning to self-cue with an image, word, or action sequence that will help initiate appropriate steps to complete a task or problem.

Examples of Interventions:

  • Training in use of a memory notebook for those with mild to moderately severe memory difficulties

  • Visual scanning training for those with visual neglect

  • Development of scripts/routines to follow to perform regularly performed activities

Services are tailored to an individual's specific needs and we work both in-clinic and in the community to facilitate generalization of skills to real-world settings.

 

If you would like to request an appointment for services, please call 925-322-3100, or click the link below: