Icebreaker Presentation
Transcript: Welcome! Life Stage, Goals, and Icebreaker Description What is our Icebreaker? Thanks for joining! The Golden Girls are so excited to show you their icebreaker, "Old Crafts, New Tricks!": Cognitive Snowflakes. Kyra Lily “Old Crafts, New Tricks!”: Cognitive Snowflakes is based around Neurobics, which are brain exercises that involve using all of the senses to create new neural pathways in the brain. Particpants will create paper snowflakes with their dominant and non-dominant hand to test and promote their cognitive development. Emily Lacie Reagan This icebreaker was selected by The Golden Girls because hands-on and cognitive stimulating activities promote cognitive development. The icebreaker also helps introduce how cognitive development functions and impacts older adults entering their later years. The Golden Girl's life stage is older adults ages 60 to 75 years. There is a felt need of promoting intellectual vigor, with a content area of internal dynamics of families. The Golden Girls hope to identify sources of stress and coping with disease and disability within older adults. The overall goal is to strengthen intellect through caregiver facillitated activities. Lets make Snowflakes! Instructions and Implementation Embedded Needs How is this Appropriate for the Life Stage? By using the non-dominant hand, this activity shows how well participants are able to adapt and problem solve. 1) Choose 1 member from your group that is going to be participating in the ice breaker 2) Materials will be passed out to the designated participator of each group for the icebreaker *Left handed scissors, loop scissors, or switch scissors can be provided for those with different developmental needs 3) All are going to watch this quick video on how to make a paper snowflake: https://youtu.be/xPaqHuFH_8g?t=9 4) The designated participator is to follow along with the step by step instructions during the video Hands-on and Monetessori style activites are common activities prescribed for those with early-stage dementia. Can help if individual cannot hold scissors Can help if individual has weaker grip strength Combines hands-on activities with social interaction which are both great ways to promote intellectual vigor in older adults. Cognitive Snowflakes Activity! It is simple yet engaging and offers opportunities to observe the abilities and needs of participants. Needs Assessment Data and Table What Information was Discovered? Data Collected - Research has shown that “activities with more activation, novelty, and productivity can reduce the negative effect of age on memory” (Karsazi et al., 2024, p. 1087). - Cognitive exercises promote intellectual vigor for all life stages, but are most useful for those in the later adulthood/aging population! - Combats memory loss in later years The Golden Girls used discussion and observation to collect data. Specific questions were used to understand the percieved level of difficulty or frustation the older adults experienced during the icebreaker activity. The data collected showed that older adults felt frustrated when using their non-dominant hand during the exercise. Ultimately, it was found that older adults appreciated the familar activity and understood that introducing the the element of using their non-dominant hands challenged them mentally and promoted intellectual vigor. Felt Need Assessment Promoting intellectual vigor Assessed through observation and discussion The observation focused on how successful older adults were with the activity While using their non-dominant hands, participants showed more frustation Over time, activities like these can help slow the progress of cognitive decline in older adults with early-stage dementia Thank You! Lets Begin the Program! Thank you to everyone for their attention and participation today! We hope that you learned something new about cognitive functioning, early onset dementia, and the later adulthood life stage! "Old Crafts, New Tricks!": Cognitive Snowflakes The Golden Girls: Icebreaker Presentation