The 24th of February was the final day of the month for our volunteers, with March ringing in a new month full of experiences. On that day, we worked with our supervisor to host an event we'd been looking forward to all month, an ice cream social. To our surprise, the event didn't run as smoothly as we'd hoped. One would be surprised how demanding older adults can be when it comes to ice cream. If we took our eyes off them, or if they thought we were ignoring them, they'd be shouting in our direction until we stopped what we were doing to handle whatever situation for which they needed assistance. I was shocked to hear our supervisor normally conducted the entire ice cream social by herself!
After serving their ice cream, we brought the white board out and prepared to play Hangman again. During this game, I was able to pick up on some cognitive differences among older adults and younger adults which we discussed on February 13th. First of all, I noticed some differences in speed of processing. According to lecture, speed of processing peaks at the age of 25 and begins to wane thereafter. I definitely noticed this decline, as it took many of the residents much longer than it would have taken me to process what our supervisor was saying.
There were other things I noticed concerning several of the residents cognitive limitations. One resident, in particular, exhibited behavior which made me think of inhibition of cognition. When asked to guess a letter for the hangman puzzle, she covered her eyes while she considered what letter she'd choose. This made me think she may have had difficulty filtering out distractions in her environment.
This day, in particular, allowed me to thoroughly examine the older adults at The Renaissance and make mental notes about their cognitive abilities. It gave me ample time to draw conclusions regarding how they differ from me cognitively, which allowed me to strengthen connections between what I've learned in class and what I'm able to observe in the real world.
Great post! I enjoyed reading about how the residents were so demanding about ice cream. Nice job of noting differences in cognition and speed of processing. Hope that you have another great visit next week!
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