I often get questions from readers along the lines of "How do I help patients make progress on cognitive goals?".
Here are the 3 steps I'd recommend for achieving cognitive goals:
Use Motivational Interviewing (MI) - to help a client reach readiness to change, to help identify specific goals, as well as to actually keep a client engaged and motivated in the therapy.
Set goals collaboratively with your patient or family - this ties into MI above. Once you've identified a goal(s), then you can work with the client to write SMART(ER) goals or GAS goals. If you have concrete, clearly defined goals that are meaningful to the client, it's much easier to make progress.
Pick a teaching method: Two common approaches are Systematic Instruction or Spaced retrieval (with or without errorless learning).
I've written many articles on cognitive therapy. Here are some I'd recommend starting with:
Motivational Interviewing
Assess readiness to change for better therapy outcomes. Learn the 5 stages of change according to the Transtheoretical Model of Change, 10 questions you can ask your patient, and find a MedBridge course on motivational interviewing and health coaching. The free downloads are a cheat sheet with the 10 questions and a readiness scale you can use in therapy.
Collaborative Goal Writing
Collaborative goal-setting to identify meaningful cognitive goals. Taking the time to set personally-meaningful goals with our patients is well worth it. Learn how I approach this, especially when it’s not easy to determine. I share how I write SMART goals. The free download is a cheat sheet.
Writing SMART memory goals for a reluctant patient. Learn how I hooked a reluctant patient into therapy, and how she exceeded expectations. I also discuss SMART goals and give examples. The free download is a cheat sheet for clinicians as well as a long list of possible skills to target in therapy.
Goal Attainment Scaling tutorial. Use GAS instead of SMART goals to demonstrate personalized outcomes from skilled intervention. This can potentially be used for any area of speech therapy. The free download is a worksheet to use with patients.
Teaching Methods
How to use spaced retrieval with errorless learning to improve memory. This tutorial will walk you through this teaching method, step-by-step. You’ll learn about common therapy targets and 9 tips to maximize success. The free downloads are a blank data sheet and a completed example.
How to plan cognitive therapy with 6 questions. Learn how to apply Systematic Instruction to achieve cognitive goals. Use Professors McKay Moore Sohlberg and Lyn S. Turkstra’s 6 questions to personalize and plan cognitive therapy. The free download discusses the 6 questions and where to learn more.