Suggestions for Cognition with Mrs. N

Feel free to change, adapt, and add on to these activities based on her interests, improvements, and abilities.

1. Review a newspaper article
   1. Explanation: Have Mrs. Ngo read as much as interests her of the newspaper. Once she has finished, have her discuss an article with a family member. (suggestions for discussion: who wrote the article, when was it written, what is it about, why does this article interest you)
   2. Rationale: this addresses reading skills, comprehension skills, communication skills, and will help to orient her to the date and current issues in her community

2. Monopoly
   1. Explanation: See monopoly game for instructions on how to play. Consider ways to make this activity more challenging or less challenging based on how she responds to the game. (example: to make the game easier, allow her to have a partner to help explain the game step by step.)
   2. Rationale: This game helps address memory (for other players previous moves), practice with the use of money (be strict about this, let her see/ reason through what happens when she spends too much), and maintaining attention for an extended period of time.

3. Phase 10 or any card game
   1. Explanation: See the game for instructions or look them up on google if there are no instructions. Again, adapt this activity for level of difficulty based on her response to it.
   2. Rationale: These games address sustainedattention, the ability to divide attention/ view perspectives outside of your own, problem-solving, and communication skills.

4. Establish routines with Activities of Daily Living
   1. Explanation & Rationale: This will be the biggest assistance for cognitive improvements with Mrs. Ngo. In the beginning, try to establish lots of routines, because this will help conserve some of her cognitive energy and give her stability and foundation for improving outside of the things she does everyday. However, as she improves with cognition, break those routines up, because this will require her to reason through changes in her day. Also, use these activities to challenge her occasionally. An example of this would be the grocery store activity she participated in at Winchester Rehabilitaiton Center. The best way to help her is to use tasks that are functional and meaningful to her. Again you can adapt and change these tasks to make them more difficult or less difficult.

5. Scrabble
   1. Explanation: See game for instructions. May be played electronically if a family member has an IPad or IPhone.
   2. Rationale: This will help her with reading skills, thinking of vocabulary independently/ creatively without assistance, problem-solving, and cause-and-effect with winning/ losing.

6. Word Searches
   1. Explanation & Rationale: This activity helps her establish visual scanning skills, spelling skills, visual comprehension skills, problem-solving, memory, and maintaining attention for an extended period of time.

** Overall, aim to emphasize and improve her problem solving skills, memory, conversation, and safety awareness. Allow her to do as much for herself as she can, but step in when she appears to be overly frustrated, and give her time to reason through the activities you’re doing with her. If she seems like she’s thinking about what you’re asking her to do, then, let her have a couple minutes to fully think about the task.