Posted by bob on March 18, 2000, at 8:59:11
In reply to Re: PAXIL, posted by Cam W. on March 17, 2000, at 18:58:17
If it *is* age-related, those mental calesthetics are really important -- they can even reverse any losses she's had.
I'm not just saying that out of my background as a research psychologist; it comes from personal experience as well. My father has had two severe strokes. {Pardon the cold analytic tone to follow...] The second one, scientifically, had some very interesting effects on his cognitive abilities. My dad was a teacher and elementary school principal for over thirty years. Like just about all elementary teachers, his penmanship was perfect -- those little script letter cards third and fourth grade classrooms tend to have posted all over the place to show proper letter forms? They looked like they copied by dad's script as a model. Anyway, there are four "language arts" we use: writing, reading, speaking, listening. Two written, two oral -- two active, two receptive. After his second stroke, he could speak and listen just fine, with no memory problems whatsoever. A matter of a few hours after his stroke, he had calmed enough to be able to write in his perfect script as well.
But he couldn't read a damned thing.
Not just print from a magazine or newspaper. He would write something down and then, 20 minutes later, he couldn't even read (or remember) what he himself had written!!
For my dad, reading is his life. He had just lost much of what brings him joy from day to day. BUT, the hospital assigned him an Occupational Therapist ... and this person worked with my dad for months. It may have been six months or so after the stroke ... I was visiting home and looked at his stack of reading material. What struck me first was an add for Zoloft on the back cover -- some young mother smiling and sharing some moment with her young daughter, and the caption: "That Zoloft Smile!".
Gag me with a chainsaw.
Anyway, I turned the journal over and it was one of the technical journals published by the APA. My dad is NOT a psychologist ... but this OT had brought my dad along to the point that he could read and comprehend material of a highly technical nature -- one of the most difficult reading tasks that there is.
So, to make a long story short -- it's not just "use it or lose it", but "use it well and beef it up".
cheers,
bob
poster:bob
thread:27321
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000312/msgs/27446.html