Using iDevices for Memory Remediation

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Answer

I use a computer somewhat, but usually during therapy when trying to provide activities that may assist in developing memory strategies.  But certainly, the iPhone® and the iPad® are similar to a PDA, where information is stored and later retrieved, and it is portable.  It is more likely that individuals, particularly those with mild brain injury that have a need to use these devices, will be willing to use those strategies because everybody has a phone and they're not marked as being individuals with memory impairment when they pull it out. The benefit of some of the smartphones, the iPhone®, iPad® and some of the PDAs is that they have different applications that can be used.  The GPS system is particularly useful because again, a hallmark of brain injury is that individuals often have difficulty in recalling how to path-find.  There is something that happens in all human. When someone is lost they say, “Let's keep going until I find something that looks familiar,” instead of stopping and looking to see where they are and trying to recall or use a map to find where they should be going.  Certainly, using the GPS system through an application on a PDA or iPhone® or iPad® can be useful, because it allows that person to be told, “Okay, now walk this way.  Now turn this way.”

Victoria (Tori) Harding provides specialized program and location development for NeuroRestorative and acts as the Clinical Projects Coordinator for Virginia NeuroCare, a Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (DVBIC) program in Charlottesville, Virginia. Currently a PhD candidate at James Madison University, Tori received her Master’s degree of Business Administration at Plymouth State University and completed her Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada.