Military & VeteransOne example of the way that our approach has changed is based on some research that has come out in the past several years about something that sounds fancy, called metacognitive strategies. But really it's quite simple in concept. You want to give a patient a strategy that they can apply over a lot of different situations, but it's the same strategy every time. And it basically helps the patient break down a big task into a lot of smaller, manageable ones. If we combine that with some of the more repetitive drillwork that can be done in a number of different ways, as long as the patient has that compensatory strategy that they can fall back on, that that will help them in order to be more successful in their day-to-day lives.
Using metacognitive strategies sounds fancy, but it's a simple concept. SLPs give patients one strategy to apply across many situations ... a way to break down a large task into smaller, manageable ones.
Inbal Eshel
Inbal Eshel, MA, CCC-SLP is the lead traumatic brain injury speech-language pathologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. She provides diagnostic and therapeutic interventions aimed at minimizing cognitive and language deficits and maximizing quality of life.
Posted on BrainLine July 19, 2012.
Produced by Victoria Tilney McDonough, Brian King, and Jared Schaubert, BrainLine.
