Assessing Cognitive Disabilities
When assessing cognitive disabilities you are considering how to adapt your presentation and the environment to create a successful lesson, as well as any other risks there might be.
For people with a cognitive disability you aim to find out the following…
Focus on how your guest communicates with you and what is the best way you can communicate with them, e.g. complex, simple, verbal, non verbal, specific signals (i.e. tired, good, bad, toilet).
Consider what behaviour is normal for your guest (your baseline) and what behaviours might indicate something is wrong. It’s also good to know if there are any inappropriate behaviours what strategies are used to manage these. Things like changing the environment, distraction, motivation, or time out.
It is good to know your guests motivations and interests. Of course, this applies in every lesson but for guests with cognitive disabilities these motivations might be your only way to connect with and engage them.
Some people with cognitive disabilities may have triggers that provoke a strong emotional response impacting the lesson. These might be environmental or social and knowing these beforehand helps you to recognise what is happening and mitigate the cause.
Cognitive Assessment Example
Tip
Use a mnemonic such as “ComBeeMoTree” to help remember the four areas.