Age Up Age Well Monthly Newsletter
December 2025 - Issue 1
Connecting Information to Your Daily Life
HEADLINES…
- Overview of cognition
- Daily look-back
- Age Up Age Well Strategy
- Quote
- Next month’s topic
Cognition
Cognition refers to the executive functions of the brain. Here is one definition provided by Wikipedia.
Cognition is the “mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.” It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as perception, attention, thought, imagination, intelligence, the formation of language, of knowledge, memory and working memory, judgment and evaluation, reasoning, computation, problem solving and decision making.
A Closer Look…
Cognition is more than memory. It encompasses skills across a variety of areas; all of which impact our daily lives. Here are some skills to consider:
- Orientation: Knowing WHO you are…WHERE you are and WHEN it is. These skills include biographical information, temporal (time) concepts and spatial concepts. Long term and short term orientation is considered.
- Attention/Concentration: The ability to focus on a specific action without help. Completing tasks in order, i.e. following a recipe, making a sandwich, playing a game, using a phone, etc.
- Listening Skills: Following verbal directions, understanding and answering a variety of questions and participating in conversations.
- Decision making/Problem solving: The ability to make choices, think ahead and use reasoning to find a solution.
- Memory: The ability to recall what you have done, heard and/or seen. Remembering personal information. Remembering new information.
- Completion of functional daily skills: Basic math, reading, telling time, medication & money management.
- Word finding: The ability to name familiar objects, identify items belonging to a specific group, i.e. vegetables, asking/answering questions and conversational turn taking.
- Judgment: What would you do if? Providing appropriate/reasonable responses to a variety of situational problems/events.
Print and Post Page
How did I do today?
- I got 7+ hours of sleep
- I ate a balanced and nutritious diet
- I got outside at least once
- I completed a brain game
- I took my prescribed medication
- I was physically active for at least 30 minutes
- I had a verbal conversation
- I was kind to myself and others
- I took screen breaks
- I read
- I completed 3–5 household tasks
Excerpt from Age Up Age Well
“Today I will refill my think tank. My fuel will be creativity, community engagement and participation. I’m never too old to learn something new. I will sharpen each part of my brain by choosing diverse and challenging activities. I will seek multi-sensory tasks that engage all my senses. I will listen, I will write, I will think and I will call upon my vast reserve of general knowledge…”
“Our brains are plastic, and we have the ability to change and shape them throughout our entire lives.” – Andrew Huberman
What’s next…
January 2026: In our first issue of the new year…Information on cognitive testing. The who, what, where, when and why of being evaluated. Common testing protocols will be shared along with memory strategies.
Until next time… Age Up Age Well
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Chris