While trying to determine how was the best way to help my partner after his motorcycle accident and subsequent brain injury, I was told that the earlier a person began doing cognitive exercises after their injury, the better their chances of recovery would be. This, however, is easier said than done because in the early stages of their injury they are often confused and angry and not in the slightest inclined towards doing exercises.
Some of the cognitive symptoms include impairments regarding perception, communication, reasoning, problem solving, planning, sequencing, lack of motivation, memory problems, inability to initiate activities and often poor judgment.
My partner displayed most of these symptoms and even after almost three years post injury, he still has difficulties with some of them although to a lesser degree than he originally had. I believe strongly that my persistence in having him do the various cognitive exercises helped him reach the stage where he now can enjoy life to a greater degree than he might otherwise have.
The following are some of the cognitive exercises we did:
- Draw lines at different angles and have injured person copy the angles of the lines drawn;
- Do lines like a backwards 'Z', an 'M' on its side facing either left or right and other similar lines. Then have them draw the same outlines themselves;
- Do various other shapes - curved lines and patterns that are irregular, etc. and have him/her copy and draw these outlines;
- Do a partial pattern of a circle, oval, triangle, etc. and let him/her complete the patterns;
- Do circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, etc. and have him/her duplicate these shapes;
- Do a series of shapes that are all the same except for one, then have him/her circle the shapes that are different;
- Do sequences of various shapes and have him/her continue making his/her own outlines of the sequences in their proper order;
- Draw a maze and have him/her find their way out of the maze;
- Do word searches;
- Do several rows of words as A, B, C, etc. under rows of 1, 2, 3, etc. Then ask such questions as: What word is in space A4? Which words contain the same letter two times? What word is above (give a word)? What word is to the right of (give a word)? Which words have five letters in them? Etc.
- Show a street map and have him/her find various streets on the map;
- Read him/her a very short story and then ask questions relating to the story. The same can be done with an item in the newspaper. Then increase the length of the story and do the same thing.
Crossword puzzles are also an excellent way to exercise the brain; as is Suduko. Although my partner was interested in crossword puzzles, he adamantly refused to do Suduko.
There are many cognitive exercises that will help but whichever ones you decide to use all will help towards your loved one's recovery.
