Cognitive Retraining
What is Cognitive Retraining?
Cognitive Retraining is a set of therapeutic techniques that speech-language pathologists utilize to help patients who have suffered a brain injury regain function in areas such as attention, memory, and problem solving.
What can cause a patient to need Cognitive Retraining?
The most common causes of brain injury that lead to the need for rehabilitation of cognitive skills include:
What do you work on during Cognitive Retraining?
After completing an evaluation to determine what areas need retraining, a speech-language pathologist (SLP) will typically work on specific cognitive functions:
- Memory: therapy targets improving memory and compensation for memory deficits
- Attention: therapy works on increasing attention capacity through drill work and self-awareness
- Sustained: the ability to maintain focus on a single task over time
- Selective: the ability to maintain focus on a task with distraction present
- Divided: the ability to complete two tasks at one time
- Neglect: a deficit of attention where patients do not recognize stimuli/body parts despite the eyes perception of that target
- Problem Solving: cognitive process to determine how to proceed in a given situation
- Reasoning: connecting information into a logical manner
- Executive Functioning: addresses meta-awareness skills such as self-monitoring, self-control, prospective thinking, judgment
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