The Assessment and Rehabilitation of Attention Functions

Attention is an important component of cognitive functions. 

The Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) is designed to measure attention in adults between 18 and 80 years old.

In this article, we will discuss how can we assess and rehabilitate attention functions.

How can we assess and rehabilitate attention functions?

Neuropsychological Assessment and Cognitive rehabilitation for Attention Functions

How Can You Assess Attention?

Focused attention makes it possible to perform many tasks and activities in your daily life. The ability to flex your mental focus properly and efficiently for stimulation depends on your concentration ability, which is why concentrated meditation can be helpful in a variety of different areas of your daily life.

Academic areas: Understand whether children have a problem paying attention in the classroom and if they can require new instructions or information given to them in a different way.

Clinical areas: Know whether patients will be able to pay attention to the given signals, or if they will be able to fit in their environment efficiently.

Professional areas: Find out if a potential employee will be a quality control manager, office worker, good driver, etc.

The neuropsychological assessment of attention typically depends on three sources of information:

(1) Psychometric tests designed to measure other cognitive functions.

(2) Specific neuropsychological tests of meditation.

(3) Direct behavioral observation and measurement.

With the help of a complete neuropsychological assessment, it is possible to evaluate a number of different cognitive skills easily and effectively. 

Some health assessments to evaluate focused attention have been inspired by the Continuous Performance Test (CPT). 

Continuous Performance Test helps to evaluate some behavioral alterations among others, like anxiety, phobia, inattention, and impulsiveness. It also helps to measure shifting and inhibition.

Read Also: What is Focused Attention in Psychology?: Understanding the Types of Attention

How Can You Rehabilitate Attention?

Cognitive rehabilitation is the process of relearning cognitive skills designed to restore normal functioning or to compensate for cognitive deficits.

This comprises the provision of therapeutic activities to reduce the severity of cognitive deficits and improve cognitive functioning.

Cognitive rehabilitation techniques include tasks designed to restore attention abilities, such as interaction with computer-assisted programs and pencil‐and‐paper tasks requiring attention.

Brain plasticity is the basis of focused attention rehabilitation and other cognitive functions. It is designed to help in the rehabilitation of deficits in cognitive skills. 

The neural connections and brain can be strengthened by challenging and working. 

The brain structures associated with focused attention will be strengthened by frequently training these skills. This means that when your ears send information and signals to the brain or neurons and the brain processes it, the connections will function more efficiently, improving and rehabilitating your mental focus.

The key to improving sustained attention is consistent and adequate training. 

There are many professional assessments and training tools that help both individuals and professionals to customize this function. These tools take only 15 minutes a day, two to three times a week during work.

Read Here: Cognitive Psychology: Sensation, Perception and Attention

Summary

In this article, we have discussed the best ways to assess, rehabilitate attention problems.