This is another recording of my own development of mind maps to illustrate that this can be a way of communicating ideas while having cognitive impairment. I can develop models like this in less than an hour and have them published immediately on my web site.

Other posts in this sequence are

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 5

Part 6

Verbally I cannot get two sentences in a row out of my mouth so as to explain these ideas to others. Were I to try I would also be distracted by everything going on around me and probably experience great anxiety and coughing fits. You would also find it difficult to interact with me because you would want to end all of my sentences, be unable to look at me because my face goes into a fierce expression most interpret as anger when I am thinking, and be off-put because I often go into repetitive body movements (tapping fingers and feet and rubbing eyebrows) when I get moderately anxious (or worse).

This medium works. I attribute this both to the benefits of the mind mapping for everyone whether cognitively impaired or not and also to the fact that using these techniques I seem to be able to access parts of the brain that for me are less damaged than many of the other skill centers (such as speaking clearly or understanding others verbalizations or recalling the words I want to use to answer questions until 90 seconds later). Using it also makes me anxious, but much less so than trying to express myself in even small social situations.

Very importantly, the mind map lets me continually see my prior train of thought as I work. I don’t have to try to remember what I thought about 30 seconds, or 10 minutes, earlier because it is right in front of my nose on the computer screen. This is a HUGE assist.

The map is compressed so that 8 minutes appear as 1 minute. Just watch the video unfold. Then you can look at the final map more clearly using the static map.

The final mind map is shown in static form below. Click to expand.