Abstract

This study was conducted to test the effect of cognitive stimulation training on elderly persons with dementia. The design of the research was one group in pre-test-post-test design. The subjects were nine demented persons over sixty years, with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. Training was administered by research assistants on a one to one basis for thirty to forty minutes, three times a week for eight weeks. In order to evaluate the effect of cognitive stimulation training, we measured cognitive function before and after three training sessions each. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired t-test analysis using a spss pc package. The results are as follows: 1) The recipients of the training program showed improvement in overall cognitive functioning. The MMSK - K score, recall levels of concepts, daily tasks, personal past history and performance of word fluency were significantly increased after training. 2) There was a significant improvement in cognitive functioning over the training period: recall levels of concepts, daily tasks, past personal history and performance of word fluency significantly increased over the training period progessively. The results suggest that cognitive stimulation training is effective in improving and maintaining overall cognitive function of elderly persons with dementia.