The underlying principle of any rehabilitation therapy is the brain’s ability to reorganise to restore or compensate for areas that have been damaged. Under every day circumstances, brains use learning to reorganise the way they work generally through forming more neural connections and improving the efficiency of the connections. Your brain still has the ability to reorganise, even when it has been damaged. There are some key principles that will improve the reorganisation of the brain. One of the most important components of learning a new skill is practice and regaining function is no exception. Practice and lots of it; generally the more you can do, the better. You will get better results if your practice is meaningful to you, in other words, practicing a task or activity is better than practicing an isolated movement. So you’ll do better if you reach for that wine glass, rather than just reaching as a movement! It’s also important for your practice to be challenging, so that you feel like you are working hard. A final point is that your practice should be specific. If a rugby player wants to get better at rugby, then they play rugby, not tennis. It’s the same for you; practice each specific activity that you want to improve. These principles are universal and can be applied whether you want to improve anything from your walking to your speech.
A therapist can help design a programme so that you get the best results from your practice. Sometimes you will get better results if you also have therapy sessions, because the therapist can help you practice things that you might not be able to do by yourself. If you'd like to get a programme developed, feel free to contact us on 09 480 6464 or visit our website www.neurorehab.co.nz.
