Effects of an explicit problem-solving skills training program using a metacomponential approach for outpatients with acquired brain injury

• Published in: The American journal of occupational therapy 2009-09, Vol.63 (5), p.525-534
• Main Authors: Fong, Kenneth N K, Howie, Dorothy R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Brain; Brain injuries; Brain Injuries - rehabilitation; Case Studies; Cerebral Hemorrhage - rehabilitation; Childhood Needs; Cognition Disorders - rehabilitation; Cognitive Ability; Cognitive skills training; Direct Instruction; Educational Needs; Elementary School Students; Evidence Based Practice; Executive Function; Experimental Groups; Female; Humans; Independent Living; Injuries; Interpersonal Relationship; Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformations - rehabilitation; Learning Problems; Male; Measurement Techniques; Medical examination; Metacognition; Middle Aged; Neurological Impairments; Occupational therapy; Occupational Therapy - methods; Outpatients; Patients; Physiological aspects; Practice guidelines (Medicine); Pragmatics; Predictor Variables; Problem Solving; Rehabilitation; Rehabilitation Programs; Skills training; Statistics, Nonparametric; Thinking Skills; Young Adult
• ISSN: 0272-9490; 1943-7676
• DOI: 10.5014/ajot.63.5.525

We investigated the effects of an explicit problem-solving skills training program using a metacomponential approach with 33 outpatients with moderate acquired brain injury, in the Hong Kong context. We compared an experimental training intervention with this explicit problem-solving approach, which taught metacomponential strategies, with a conventional cognitive training approach that did not have this explicit metacognitive training. We found significant advantages for the experimental group on the Metacomponential Interview measure in association with the explicit metacomponential training, but transfer to the real-life problem-solving measures was not evidenced in statistically significant findings. Small sample size, limited time of intervention, and some limitations with these tools may have been contributing factors to these results. The training program was demonstrated to have a significantly greater effect than the conventional training approach on metacomponential functioning and the component of problem representation. However, these benefits were not transferable to real-life situations.