External cueing systems in the rehabilitation of executive impairments of action

Abstract

The use of a mnemonic cueing system (NeuroPage®) and a paper and pencil checklist in the rehabilitation of executive problems in a 50-year-old woman are described. Following a CVA 7 years earlier, the patient, despite intact general intellectual and memory functioning, had specific executive impairments of attention, planning, realizing intended actions, and also exhibited behavioral routines similar in form to obsessive–compulsive rituals. In a series of ABAB single-case experimental designs, the efficacy of 2 external cueing systems in prompting appropriately timed action is demonstrated. It is argued that the combination of external control and increased sustained attention to action were critical to the success of NeuroPage with this patient. Furthermore it is hypothesized that the checklist was effective in facilitating the patient's ability to foresee and recognize the consequences of her actions, which in turn had an impact on the probability of her changing those same actions. (JINS, 1998, 4, 399–408.)