COGNITIVE CHANGES WITH AGING

One of the most important and most studied aspects of aging is cognitive functioning; that is, intelligence, learning, and memory. These are critical to an individual’s performance in every aspect of life, including work and leisure activities, social relationships, and productive roles. Aging adults who have problems in cognitive functioning will eventually experience stress in these other areas as well, along with an increasing incongruence between their competence levels and the demands of the environment. When discussing the cognitive changes experienced by aging adults, there is a tendency to speak of declines with aging, but there is growing evidence of gains as well.

For your post in this discussion, select two activities from your reading that you believe impact the gains of cognitive abilities of aging adults. Provide a clear description of each activity and how you believe it impacts the cognitive abilities of aging adults. Then respond to the following:

• As a human service and public service leader, how could you facilitate these activities with the aging adult, family, and community?
• What additional information from your experiences and reading could you provide that relates to the impact of these activities?