Matching challenges, strategies and apps
At BEST, we have been working with people with brain injuries since the 1980s. We know what works and what doesn’t. We carefully review apps ourselves to identify the smallest number of apps that will solve the most cognitive challenges in daily living—whether at home, in the community, at work, or at school. If we can’t find an app out there that meets the need, we create a new one, and we involve people with brain disorders in the development process.
Now that we’ve identified the essential, core apps, we’ve created easy, self-paced online training to help the user utilize the apps most effectively and efficiently. The right apps plus the right training equals the 21st century’s brain prosthetic!
The tables below show some examples of the pairing of some common cognitive challenges with strategies, along with some of the apps that help users implement those strategies.
Learning and memory examples
| Common Challenges | Strategies | Apps |
|---|---|---|
| * PaceMyDay, part of the BEST Suite of apps | ||
| Staying focused | Track time & energy on tasks | PaceMyDay* |
| Forgetting information and/or people | Take pictures of relevant work/school site locations & co-workers/teachers | Photos; Notability; Inspiration Maps |
| Doing too much & becoming overwhelmed to the point of exhaustion, which interferes with learning and memory | Plan breaks to help reduce fatigue | PaceMyDay* |
| Getting overwhelmed by paper; not being able to find important information | Reduce paper by using apps to create task analyses or checklists and use keyword search | Notability; Inspiration Maps |
Attention and focus examples
| Common Challenges | Strategies | Apps |
|---|---|---|
|
||
| Losing my place when doing something; going from one activity to another (bouncing) | Focus attention on one thing at a time | PaceMyDay* |
| Losing where I am within a process or list of things to do; not managing time effectively | Create a task list; plan activities in a calendar | Notability; Inspiration Maps; ReachMyGoals†; Week Calendar |
| Not knowing what strategy to use | Apply principles of self-regulation; create a list of effective strategies | Notability; PaceMyDay*; StrategizeMyLife†† |
Executive function examples
| Common Challenges | Strategies | Apps |
|---|---|---|
|
||
| Not planning ahead; double-booking or missing appointments; not completing work on time | Enter all commitments in a calendar; create a plan for accomplishing a goal | Week Calendar, ReachMyGoals† |
| Spending a lot of time looking for things and sometimes not finding them | Take notes on smart device and use keyword search to find them later | Notability; Inspiration Maps; Week Calendar |
| Losing track of the amount of time on task; having no idea how long a task actually takes | Track time, energy, and mood on a per-task basis | PaceMyDay* |
| Having difficulty initiating a task due to being overwhelmed or not knowing where to start | Brainstorm; use time management techniques | Inspiration Maps; PaceMyDay* |
| Having difficulty incorporating feedback or switching gears | Look for previously written notes and have a list of “go-to” people; create a graphic organizer to help see the big picture of the situation | Notability; Inspiration; PaceMyDay* |