by Robert Oliphant
Columnist EducationNews.org

The case for anti-Alzheimer's achievement coaching as a career opportunity, as set forth in Education News, Feb. 19, 2009, can be summarized via three key words: worry, hope, and practicality.As far as worry goes, more and more of us, especially those in their early fifties, are getting panicky about our three major symptoms of cognitive deterioration: going blank on proper names, going blank on ordinary and technical words, and concentration slippage ("what was it we were just talking about?").

On the brighter side the overall failure of drug therapies has revived our acceptance of behavior modification treatments, especially those based on the "reality orientation" techniques developed by Joseph Folsom and other VA researchers for use with older WWI veterans.Finally, and most important, the non-medical status of Reality Orientation invites its use as a coaching/ tutorial career for any American able to reach out to potential clients and get results (e.g., sports trainers, music teachers, drama coaches, etc.).

One-one coaching. . . . Since the EdNews 2/19 article focused on concentration slippage, what's here will present a practical guide for starting out as a vocabulary re-empowerment coach with the goal of helping Americans who worry about going blank on ordinary words and technical terms.As in any coach-client relationship, reaching this goal will require plenty of work by the client (just like practicing scales and learning pieces), along with performance-tests to make sure that plenty of concentration time has actually been logged.

A half-hour conference backed up with at least ten hours of client effort — if this implicit bargain doesn't hold up, the relationship deserves to be terminated, and usually is.(I once had a voice teacher tell me after six weeks, "This is a waste of my time and your money, so let's call it quits with no hard feelings." )

Low cost tools for coach and client. . . . The primary advantage an aspiring vocabulary re-empowerment coach has, especially a beginning one, is the availability of low cost study tools.For question formats (e.g., spelling-bee style) and word lists), both coach and client should have copies of "An Internationalist Dictionary of High Tech Latinate English," which can be downloaded free of charge via www.thirdeducationgroup/Review/ Resources/ HighTechDictionary.pdf.For question answers and multi-clue word learning, they can both use the electronic version of Random House Unabridged, which is quickly available online free of charge at via www.dictionary.com.

More ambitiously, both coach and student can download the Random House Unabridged WordGenius dictionary (RHUWG) via http://www.eis-usa.com/pub/wgrubdp.exe, along with the "Memory Improvement and Vocabulary Empowerment Series viahttp://www.eis-usa.com/pub/ MIVESpkg.exe.The first of these is much faster and fuller than the RHU presented online; the second covers all three pre-Alzheimer's challenges: proper

By way of additional background, there's the fictionalized reality orientation case study"A Piano for Mrs. Cimino" (Prentice Hall, 1980), along with its prizewinning (Monte Carlo, 1983) EMI film version (same title) starring Bette Davis, both of which can be ordered via Amazon and other sources.

Physician, heal thyself. . . . For aspiring anti Alzheimer's achievement coaches, the only challenge here is that of building self confidence.To come right out with it, just as a singing coach should be able to sing, an anti Alzheimer's coach should be able to learn new vocabulary words, especially those from the sources which the client will be using.Practically considered, just as it would for a client, this calls for a 400-word study list in a personal-interest subject field (anatomy, music, grammar, etc.), along with, say, at least a 70% achievement level on an informal test using a spelling bee format.

But since even 12-year olds, who are very, very efficient memorizers, have trouble learning 400 new words (the Scripps competition requires 800), there's no doubt that taking this first step is a daunting task: very possibly a confidence killer, not a confidence builder, for a 50-year old.Hence the wisdom of preliminary privacy for both aspiring coaches and prospective clients.The essence of Reality Orientation is being honest with ourselves, after all.

TO CONCLUDE. . . . Right now anyone can solicit clients as anti-Alzheimer's achievement coach (no license required).But the AAA roots in the VA Reality Orientation program will inspire confidence among many Americans, especially those who are disappointed with high cost drug-centered therapies.As I've tried to show, the need is there and so are the tools.All potential clients need now, especially those in the 50-70 group, are energetic coaches — lots of them.

Published March 2, 2009