Cognitive brain abilities are essential for people as they help determine how we respond to everyday occurrences. Simple acts such as operatin the shower or opening doors are controlled by the brain’s ability to function normally, as perception, motor skills, memory, and language, among other abilities, are essential to the success of our day-to-day activities. Unfortunately, when a person suffers a traumatic brain injury, the cognitive brain abilities and function are often damaged and broken down to less-than-basic levels. For this reason, it is essential to patients recovering from or living with a TBI to work consistently at rebuilding their cognition.
According to Christina Sevilla of LearningRx in Denver,
cognitive skill training is an essential practice for people who wish to improve their brain functions after they have suffered a severe head or brain injury. She claims that breakdowns in cognitive skills mirror the symptoms of TBI, such as confusion, the inability to comprehend words, failure to accomplish basic tasks, and memory loss. Sevilla believes that cognitive training can be positive momentum in helping the brain recover some of the simplest daily tasks, which would be essential in allowing TBI patients to re-assimilate with society.
“The training forces the brain to better utilize or grow more synapses, or pathways, so it can process information more quickly and efficiently,” Sevilla wrote for Colorado Health. “That’s exactly what needs to happen with people who’ve suffered a brain injury. Quite often, many of their original pathways are destroyed during or after the injury, so it’s essential that they use other brain pathways or that they grow connections again. In reorganizing or regrowing these paths, it is possible to build up the basic mental skills we need to successfully focus, think, prioritize, plan, understand, visualize, remember and solve problems.”
As with any training, progress can be judged and determined by the ease with which the patient begins to pick up on ordinary tasks. Additionally, the tests can involve basic games and puzzles to challenge the brain into inducing better problem-solving skills. Obviously, though, the difficulty of the tests will depend on the severity of the brain injury and the patient’s ability to respond to simple commands.
However, when used in cooperation with additional rehabilitative measures and therapeutic practices, cognitive skills training may provide an extra boost that allows patients suffering from TBI to regain control of their basic daily freedom.
Ashley Burns
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