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mynameisEarl_unit1

This version was saved 15 years, 1 month ago View current version     Page history
Saved by earl babista
on February 4, 2009 at 9:02:40 pm
 
 


 

Cover Sheet


 

What is the purpose of your argument?

 

 In this paper, I attempt to provide examples of how the Nintendo Wii can be a beneficial tool to our geriatric population that reside in nursing homes.

 

 

Who is your target audience?

My audience is a group of readers that have a general idea of what the Nintendo Wii is and how playing this console could possibly be used for something other than entertainment. This group of readers should have a vague understanding of the physical and mental difficulties that people have in nursing home facilities. If they know a little of these topics, than the examples I present to argue my case should come across as clear.

 

 

 

 

What is your thesis statement?

Based on these definitions, the activities connected to using the Nintendo Wii can be used as a valid tool for occupational therapy for the elderly.

 

 

Did I learn/try anything new while growing this composition?

I didn't really understand what an occupational therapist actually did. It was interesting to read how they use simple exercises to greatly improve elderly patients both mentally and physically.

 

 

What did I like best about my composition and the composition process?

 I liked how the examples of occupational therapy activities and the Wii activities where related without using too much medical terminology. I felt that if I used too much of the jargon that an occupational therapist would typically use, the message would be harder to understand.

 

 

 Where would you like to see the most feedback/advice on your final draft?

 

I would like to read feedback on the clarity of my paper. Was my thesis clear? Were the examples in the body paragraphs clear and understandable? Did the conclusion make its point?

 

 

 

Class Workshop Copy


 

 

The Nintendo Wii is a video game console that generates visual feedback based on a person’s interaction and activity with a user interface. Occupational therapists working in an elderly care facility create tasks and activities to improve individuals physically, cognitively and socially. Based on these definitions, the activities connected to using the Nintendo Wii can be used as a valid tool for occupational therapy for the elderly.
 
As a therapist, your goal is to improve or maintain range of motion, strength, and hand eye coordination. Range of motion exercises help maintain normal joint function by increasing and preserving joint mobility and flexibility (William C. Shiel Jr., 2007). Limited range of motion can cause a decrease in functional abilities and can eventually cause pain. Exercises that include light bending, stretching, and turning promote improvement in an elderly patient’s range of motion. A patient can gradually reach normal range of motion by continuously doing these exercises. Range of motion is important because impairment would cause difficulties in everyday activities like walking up the stairs, reaching in the cupboard for food, or bending over to get the morning paper. Studies have shown that strength training can reduce mortality and morbidity in older adults (Robert J Nied, 2002) .Building strength has a plethora of benefits. Some include, decreases in falling incidents, bone density loss, slip and fall accidents, obesity and increases in quality of sleep, function, and glycemic control (Robert J Nied, 2002). An example of strength training would be repetitious movement with very light dumbbells. Hand eye coordination is very important because it can influence a persons balance and orientation. Simple exercises like catching a bouncing ball or catching a falling balloon promote hand eye coordination.
 
The Nintendo Wii can promote all these exercises for physical improvement. For range of motion exercises, a patient can play Wii Tennis and swing the controller like they would an actual racquet. If someone has limited range of motion, the controller will still recognize that the controller is being swung and therefore the patient isn’t forced to exert themselves. With continuous use, one can achieve desired range of motion. Strength can be increase using the Wii as well. Repetitious motions using Wii Boxing increases muscle tone and strength and also serves as a cardiovascular workout. Any game on the Wii will improve hand eye coordination. Using Wii Tennis, an individual must time swinging the controller and the oncoming ball to make contact. If someone isn’t able to time the swing right away, your eyes will be able to adjust over multiple tries.
 
Therapists also look to improve cognition in their elderly patients. Cognition involves the acquisition of information within the person’s environment and the continued process of this information (Chapey, 2001). It includes several mental operations that include attention, memory, planning/evaluative thinking. From a therapy standpoint, attention involves keeping the patient engaged in an activity without allowing distractions to interfere with the individuals focus. This is important in an elderly person’s everyday life because reduced attention abilities could lead to difficulties in person’s activities of daily living such as cooking, driving, managing finances, and taking medications. Memory from a therapy standpoint is the ability to recall and retrieve information, directions, and instructions relative to a specific task. Memory is important in active daily living for the elderly because without it, they wouldn’t remember how to get home, what chores they had to do, following doctors advice for medicine consumption, and turning off the stove after cooking. Evaluative thinking involves the ability of an individual to use information such as instructions, directions, timing, and logic. An example of evaluative thinking is cooking dinner. One has to ensure that the meat is thawed (logic), make sure ingredients are used properly (directions), and making sure food is done in time (timing) (Chapey, 2001). One exercise that encompasses cognitive processes above is a basketball style game that involves different colored, weighted bean bags. The point of the game is to throw the bean bag into the basket. Attention is involved because a therapist has to make sure that the patient is engaged with the game and not surrounding sounds or distractions. Memory is involved because the patient has to recall the instructions that were given about how to play the game. And evaluative thinking is used because the patient needs to calculate how much force to use in order to get the weighted bean bag in the basket. The patient needs to make the assumption that the heavier bag requires more energy and effort than the lighter bag in order to get it in the basket.
 
The Wii has many games that improve cognition. Playing Wii Tennis promotes attention, memory, and planning/evaluative thinking. The patient has to be fully engaged while playing the game or else they will lose. Memory is used because they have to recall what buttons and which motions do what. Evaluative thinking is involved because the patient needs to realize that when the tennis ball is bouncing toward their forehand side, a forehand stroke of the Wii controller must be utilized.
 
Occupational therapists also look to improve their elderly patients socially. Being in a therapy or nursing home facility lends to social isolation because a person is removed from their family and regular circle of friends. Other tragic incidents like loss of a spouse, personal injury, or serious illness also contributes to limited social interactions. Group therapy is a common form of social therapy that not only targets goals like strengthening range of motion, and cognitive activities like the ones mentioned above, but also enhances social interaction. Within this form of therapy, patients within the group work together to complete a specific task. The social aspect is being able to communicate with other individuals going through the same thing, reminiscing and using appropriate social behaviors. An example of this type of therapy is gathering a group of patients and instructing them to make a gingerbread house during the holiday season. The group must communicate to each other properly to make sure the gingerbread house is made correctly and they use to time to reminisce about their own experiences with the holidays.
 
 
The Wii can accomplish social types of therapy with group play. Many Wii games have multiplayer capacity where many players can participate. Wii Sports has games like tennis where more than one player can play at a time. The participants must communicate with each other to make sure they know which player is supposed to be on the right side and the other on the left. They must communicate who is going after the ball as well so the other can be prepared when the ball is hit back.
 
The Wii has accommodated all the goals of an occupational therapist, however there are limitations. If an individual is unable to hold the controller because of physical limitation then the Wii is ineffective. If the patient is physically able to hold the controller but unable to follow instructions because of deficits in understanding verbal instruction, processing information, or information retrieval then the Wii is ineffective. If the patient is unable to display proper social behaviors when using the Wii with other people, then the Wii will not be a useful tool.
 
People normally associate video games with entertainment and younger people like teens. They need to step away from these assumptions and realize that the technology can be used for more functional purposes for our geriatric population. Wii can be used to improve or maintain a geriatric patient’s physical abilities (strength and range of motion), cognitive awareness, and social behaviors. Because the technology is relatively new and there are no formal studies to determine that the Wii alone can be used for the above improvements, there is no denying that the application possesses the potential of being a valid supplemental tool along with traditional therapy practices to help geriatric patients.
 
 

 

 

 

 

Feedback


 

 

 

- Earl, you are dead on with this. My great aunt and uncle, both in their mid 80's, own a Wii. They round up their various wizened gumbas to have Wii

parties on wiikends. They very much enjoy Wii sports, with particular affection towards golf and bowling. - Danny

 

 

 - Kristie - Great stuff Earl. I love the Wii's virtual activities compare to real world physical activities and how this particular video game world mimics or takes the place of the actual world and has the same effect.

 

 

-Dylan A.: Earl, this was a great piece. Very interesting, but i think you should talk about the wii fit board they just came out with and how there are even more exercises and physical therapy out now.

 

 

Reflection on Feedback


 

 I didnt really get too much feedback from the drafts I provided in the workshop. People pointed out some grammatical errors that were present and those have been corrected.  Dylan made a comment that I should include that Wii Fit board as an example for the physical improvement section of the paper. I did make an addition to the final draft acknowledging the Wii Fit.

 

 

Final Draft


 

 

The Nintendo Wii is a video game console that generates visual feedback based on a person’s interaction and activity with a user interface. Occupational therapists working in an elderly care facility create tasks and activities to improve individuals physically, cognitively and socially.  Based on these definitions, the activities connected to using the Nintendo Wii can be used as a valid tool for occupational therapy for the elderly.
 
As a therapist, your goal is to improve or maintain range of motion, strength, and hand eye coordination. Range of motion exercises help maintain normal joint function by increasing and preserving joint mobility and flexibility (William C. Shiel Jr., 2007).  Limited range of motion can cause a decrease in functional abilities and can eventually cause pain.  Exercises that include light bending, stretching, and turning promote improvement in an elderly patient’s range of motion. A patient can gradually reach normal range of motion by continuously doing these exercises. Range of motion is important because impairment would cause difficulties in everyday activities like walking up the stairs, reaching in the cupboard for food, or bending over to get the morning paper.  Studies have shown that strength training can reduce mortality and morbidity in older adults (Robert J Nied, 2002) .Building strength has a plethora of benefits. Some include, decreases in falling incidents, bone density loss, slip and fall accidents, obesity and increases in quality of sleep, function, and glycemic control (Robert J Nied, 2002). An example of strength training would be repetitious movement with very light dumbbells.  Hand eye coordination is very important because it can influence a persons balance and orientation. Simple exercises like catching a bouncing ball or catching a falling balloon promote hand eye coordination.
 
The Nintendo Wii can promote all these exercises for physical improvement. For range of motion exercises, a patient can play Wii Tennis and swing the controller like they would an actual racquet. If someone has limited range of motion, the controller will still recognize that the controller is being swung and therefore the patient isn’t forced to exert themselves. With continuous use, one can achieve desired range of motion. Strength can be increased using the Wii as well. Repetitious motions using Wii Boxing increases muscle tone and strength and also serves as a cardiovascular workout. Any game on the Wii will improve hand eye coordination. Using Wii Tennis, an individual must time swinging the controller and the oncoming ball to make contact. If someone isn’t able to time the swing right away, your eyes will be able to adjust over multiple tries. And with the introduction of the recently released Wii Fit, which incorporates yoga, aerobics, strength training, and balance, there are even more exercises that can be done.
 
Therapists also look to improve cognition in their elderly patients. Cognition involves the acquisition of information within the person’s environment and the continued process of this information (Chapey, 2001). It includes several mental operations that include attention, memory, and planning/evalutative thinking. From a therapy standpoint, attention involves keeping the patient engaged in a activity without allowing distractions to interfere with the individuals focus. This is important in a elderly persons everyday life because reduced attention abilities could lead to difficulties in a persons activities of daily living such as cooking, driving, managing finances, and taking medications. Memory from a therapy standpoint is the ability to recall and retrieve information, directions, and intructions relative to a specific task. Memory is important in active daily living for the elderly because without it, they wouldn’t remember how to get home, what chores they had to do, following doctors advise for medicine consumption, and turning off the stove after cooking.  Evaluative thinking involves the ability of a indivual to use information such as instructions, directions, timing, and logic. An example of evaluative thinking is cooking dinner. One has to ensure that the meat is thawed (logic), make sure ingredients are used properly (directions), and making sure food is done in time (timing) (Chapey, 2001).  One excersise that encompasses cognitive processes above  is a basketball style game that involves different colored, weighted bean bags. The point of the game is to throw the bean bag into the basket. Attention is involved because a therapist has to make sure that the patient is engaged with the game and not surrounding sounds or distractions. Memory is involved because the patient has to recall the instructions that were given about how to play the game. And evaluative thinking is used because the patient needs to calculate how much force to use in order to get the weighted bean bag in the basket. In order to get the bean bag in the basket, the patient needs to make the assumption that the heavier bag requires more energy and effort than the lighter bag.
 
 
The Wii has many games that improve cognition. Playing Wii Tennis promotes attention, memory, and planning/evalutative thinking. The patient has to be fully engaged while playing the game or else they will lose. Memory is used because they have to recall what buttons and which motions do what. Evaluative thinking is involved because the patient needs to realize that when the tennis ball is bouncing toward their forehand side, a forehand stroke of the Wii controller must be utilized.
 
Occupational therapist also look to improve their elderly patients socially. Being in a therapy or nursing home facility lends to social isolation because a person is removed from their family and regular circle of friends. Other tragic incidents like loss of a spouce, personal injury, or serious illness also contributes to limited social interactions. Group therapy is a common form of social  therapy that not only targets goals like strenthening, range of motion, and cognitive activities like the ones mentioned above, but also enhances social interaction. Within this form of therapy, patients within the group work together to complete a specific task. The social aspect is being able to communicate with other individuals going through the same thing, remaniscing and using appropraie social behaviors. An example of this type of therapy is gathering a group of patients and instructing them to make a gingerbread house during the holiday season. The group must communicate to each other properly to make sure the gingerbread house is made correctly and they use the time to remanice about their own experiences with the holidays.
 
 
The Wii can accomplish social types of therapy with group play. Many Wii games have multiplayer capacity where many players can participate. Wii Sports has games like tennis where more than one player can play at a time. The participants must communicate with each other to make sure they know which player is suppose to be on the right side and the other on the left. They must communicate who is going after the ball as well so the other can be prepared when the ball is hit back.
 
 
 
The Wii has accomidated all the goals of a occupational therapist, however there are limitations. If an idividual is unable to hold the controller because of physical limitation then the Wii is inaffective. If the patient is physically able to hold the controller but unable to follow instructions because of deficits in understanding verbal instruction, processing information, or information retrieval then the Wii is ineffective. If the patient is unable to display proper social behaviors when using the Wii with other people, then the Wii will not be a useful tool.
 
 
 
People normally associate video games with entertainment and younger people like teens. They need to step away from these assumtions and realize that the  technology can be used for more funtional purposes for our geriatric population. Wii can be used to improve or maintain a geriatric patient’s physical abilities (strength and range of motion), cognitive awareness, and social behaviors. Because the technology is relatively new and there are no formal studies to determine that the Wii alone can be used for the above improvements, there is no denying that the application possesses the potential of being a valid supplemental tool along with traditional tharapy practices to help geriatric patients.
 
 
 

 

References

 

 

Chapey, R. (2001). Language Intervention Strategies in Aphasia and Related Neurogenic Communication Disorders. Baltimore, MD: Lippincott, Williams, and Wilkins.

 

 

Nied, M.D., R. J. Retrieved Feb. 04, 2009. Web site: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20020201/419.html.

 

 

Shiel Jr. M.D., W. C. Retrieved Feb. 04, 2009. Web site: http://www.webmd.com/osteoarthritis/exercise-treat-arthritis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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