What is Cognitive Therapy?
Cognitive functions can be defined as the ability to know, including awareness, perception, logical thinking, language, memory, and reasoning. These include:

• Attention (sustained, selective, shifting)
• Perception (visual, spatial, auditory, tactile)
• Orientation
• Memory (short-term, long-term, topographic-spatial memory)
• Executive functions (problem-solving and rapid decision-making)
• Learning and using information
• Acquisition of complex skills, planning
• Organization and abstract thinking
• Mathematical abilities

Cognitive functions are mental processes that allow us to perform meaningful activities in daily life. We perform most of our daily tasks habitually and routinely. Cognitive functions include both routine and non-routine activities. Routine tasks are automatic and require little attention. Non-routine tasks require attention control mechanisms to focus on new tasks. Non-routine tasks require practice until they become habitual. New situations require planning and problem-solving to achieve goals.

Knowledge of cognitive processes is important for activity performance analysis, identifying activity limitations, and participation restrictions. In cognitive dysfunction, habits, routines, and personal roles are affected.

What is the Role of the Occupational Therapist in Cognitive Therapy?
Occupational therapists specialize in determining how cognitive problems affect daily activities, social interactions, and routines. Their responsibilities include:

• Assessing safety, independence, and performance ability in self-care activities
• Maintaining balance
• Educating family and caregivers
• Monitoring acute care
• Intervening to address deficits in attention, problem-solving, and perception, and managing impulsive behaviors
• Organizing basic daily activities such as eating, bathing, dressing, and personal care

Who Can Benefit from Cognitive Therapy?

• Cerebrovascular accident (stroke)
• Cerebral palsy
• Traumatic brain injury
• Brain tumor patients
• Those who have had brain infections
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Dementia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Down syndrome
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Developmental disorders

Cognitive impairments frequently cause functional problems in individuals with neurological conditions. These can manifest as decreased activity performance, difficulty recognizing objects, or impairments in sequencing events. Individuals may fail to recognize family members, have memory difficulties, not respond to questions, or experience attention problems. Therefore, occupational therapy assessments consider not only the person’s body structures and functions but also the characteristics of the environment, activity, and the person’s role to identify cognitive performance skills and activity requirements.

How Are Functions Evaluated in Cognitive Therapy?
To identify the problem and understand its impact on the person’s life, interviews and observational assessments are first conducted. Then, standardized screening and assessment tests are used to more accurately determine the effect of cognitive impairment.

How Should Functional Treatment Be Planned in Cognitive Therapy?
Cognitive rehabilitation is carried out in four stages:

• Process training: focusing on the underlying components of cognitive functions
• Strategy training: focusing on compensatory approaches
• Functional activity training: aimed at daily living activities and training cognitive functions
• Education: focusing on insight development

Occupational therapists use these individualized approaches to help the person become more independent and participate fully in society without limitations.

Occupational therapists play a vital role for adults with cognitive impairments. They facilitate new brain pathways and improve functional skills by adapting and retraining activities. This enables people to participate more fully in care, work, leisure, and community activities, reducing the burden on caregivers and social resources while improving quality of life.