Cognitivism1

=Curriculum Exemplifying Cognitive Instructional Features =

[|Kennedy Krieger Institute]
  The Kennedy Krieger Institute is dedicated to helping children will all types of disorders and diagnoses. One of the many things they feature is cognitive curriculum for students with traumatic brain injuries. Our cognition is a combination of mental attributes that allows us to make sense of the world around us. When a traumatic brain injury occurs, loss of some of these mental attributes is common. The Cognitive Curriculum for Students with Traumatic Brain Injuries provides a scope and sequence of cognitive functions for students that need it. To place students in the correct realm of the scope and sequence of this curriculum, a couple of factors are taken into consideration. Where the students are cognitively before and after the traumatic brain injury and the severity of the injury are considered. The students’ placement within the scope and sequence of this curriculum helps decide the goals and objectives for each particular child. The following are cognitive strategies used within this curriculum to help students overcome their physical and mental impairments caused by their injury. __Cueing__- Cueing is a stimulus that determines or prompts how a student will respond. It can be physical, visual, or verbal. Examples of physical cueing are hand over hand and tactile. Examples of visual cueing are modeling, gestures, and pictorials. Examples of verbal cueing are phonemics, probing, and abstract direction.

__Attention__- Attention is key for children with traumatic brain injuries. Students have to relearn how to focus on important aspects in the classroom environment, sustain their attention while ignoring distractions, shift attention when necessary, and multitask by giving their attention to more than one thing at the same time. Cognitive curriculum uses cueing to keep students focused.

__Memory__- Memory is essential to cognitive functions. Learning happens through a progression of memory. Memory deficits are difficult to target. Cognitive curriculum is self-oriented to the student to help them regain memory regarding their personal identity and then build from there.

__Language__- Modeling is used in cognitive curriculum to increase students ability to communicate after a traumatic brain injury. The focus is not on teaching a particular language skill but to allow the student to begin communicating in their own way.

Cognitive theory is based on the belief that human beings are logical in the choices that they make. They make choices that make the most sense to them. The Cognitive Curriculum for Students with Traumatic Brain Injury helps students make sense of their choices, control the choices they make, and understand their information processing.