About
How it all started and what we are doing to help seniors and their families through our research.
Founder Story
Natalia Kasperovich is a university-educated chemical engineer, community volunteer, educator, and most importantly, a lifelong learner.
She recently earned the Associate Degree in Gerontology from Portland Community College.
She is a passionate advocate for continuous and self-motivated learning, intergenerational understanding, diversity, and inclusivity.
Research
Encourages Creative Expression
Many older people describe themselves as lacking creativity and they are reluctant to engage in traditional creative projects like painting or drawing. Bricks for Better Brains© offers an opportunity to ease the transition from art/craft appreciation to active art making.
Participants learn about quilts (Amish quilts, African-American quilts, Victorian Crazy quilts, and contemporary quilts) and their deep connection to history that can tell us a lot about past and present events and traditions. This information connects the activity to the participants' memories and makes it relevant to their past experiences.
Then, Bricks for Better Brains© incorporates elements of color therapy. While creating their compositions, participants transition from color choices that are dictated by quilting traditions to their own color choices which reflect their preferences and even help with adapting to stress and anxiety.
Reinforces Body-Mind Connection and Improves Hand Function
One of the essential elements of Bricks for Better Brains© is tactile stimulation. The National Library of Medicine issued a very informative report How Do Hands Work?, where we learn that "Our hands...have very sensitive 'antenna' for receiving information from the environment: There are a total of 17,000 touch receptors and free nerve endings in the palm.These pick up sensations of pressure, movement and vibration" and then send signals to the brain (National Library of Medicine).
Interlocking bricks offer unique opportunities to enhance sensory input. Each act of simply picking up interlocking bricks, connecting them to each other, removing pieces, and putting finishing touches by pressing on top of the composition with the palm of the hand activates numerous touch receptors and nerve endings that might not be engaged during everyday activities. Functional aging changes can be minimized by hand exercises.
White Paper Reference
A Bricks for Better Brains® research paper that provides a deep overview of how the program improves brain health through multi-component activity.
Read External PDF File
Strengthens Social Engagement
As we age, we have the potential to become prisoners of habits, social norms, and accepted ways of thinking that might have been effective previously but also can restrict the development, flexibility and growth needed to meet new, age-related challenges.
Bricks for Better Brains© encourages participants to shift away from a negative mindset and open their minds and hearts to new experiences as they engage, enhance, and explore opportunities for positive growth and development.
The aspiration to create an atmosphere of discovery and exploration and an opportunity to customize experiences in accordance with individual preferences and abilities makes this program well fitted for small group settings where participants form special bonds as they set out to explore novel experiences.