Abstract
The elderly immigrant population is a sensitive group that does not benefit fully from existing health care services, since language barrier is a significant obstacle for them. Currently, cognitive assessments or the interventions proposed, are essentially based on language. However, it has been shown that cognition is influenced by language and cultural variable. Consequently, the implication of these factors and the cognitive problems related to aging make the elderly immigrant population even more vulnerable. This thesis aims to propose an alternate solution to the limitations as far as it concerns a minority population. As such, we take the approach of embodied and situated cognition, which has demonstrated its relevance both in understanding age-related disorders (Versace, Vallet and Brouillet., 2018, Lindenberger and Baltes., 1994), as well as in explaining the influences of culture (Berry., 2002) and language (Bidet-Idei et al.,2020) on cognition. We had two main goals in this thesis: firstly, was creating and testing the feasibility of exercises based on sensoriality and motor skills. Secondly, to build a Sensory-Motor Stimulation Programme integrating these exercises and to validate its effectiveness in memory stimulation. As such, in our first study, we demonstrated that embodied cognition is a better predictor of age-related cognitive changes. In a second study, we proposed a sensorimotor battery to assess executive functioning, as well as the use of a multicultural battery (the CNTB - cross-cultural neuropsychological battery, Nielsen et al., 2018) to measure cognitive performance in older people. Finally, in a third study, we proposed the creation and validation of a sensorimotor cognitive intervention program (the PSSM: sensorimotor stimulation program). In particular, this study was carried out with older adults of immigrant background in France (Moroccan women), older adults in France with a low level of education, and older adults in Mauritius. The overall result obtained from our thesis work suggests that sensory-motor stimulation can be an alternative approach to overcome the difficulties practitioners face in caring for older adults with language or cultural limitations.