Category: Assessment

Clock drawing test: Worth the time?

Clock drawing test: Worth the time?

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3 minute read Take home message The clock drawing test is used to highlight problems with high level cognitive skills. Making any one of these errors suggests a problem: displaying the wrong time, no clock hands, missing numbers, number substitutions, number repetition. Even refusing to do the test is a red flag. While the clock scoring test alone can’t diagnose dementia, it can throw up a warning sign to do some further investigation. It’s fast, easy and free. Clock Drawing Test – What’s involved? “I want you to draw a clock, fill in the numbers and set the hands...

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Five things to remember when assessing cognition

Five things to remember when assessing cognition

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Occupational Therapists often take the lead in functional cognitive assessment of a person with dementia. In the absence of a neuropsychologist, it can be difficult to outline each specific component of cognitive deficit. To help, here are five things to remember when assessing cognition.   1)      Keep it functional As an OT, your role is to look at how a person’s cognition affects their safety and independence. Try to use as many functional assessments as possible to gather your information. It’s not necessary to use the psychological term for every error made during the assessment. 2)      Don’t rely on...

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Are cognitive screening tests still reliable?

Are cognitive screening tests still reliable?

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The cognitive performance of US President Donald Trump hit the headlines when it was announced he had passed the MoCA test. The news sparked a flurry of conversation and saw the test, a widely used cognitive screening tool, posted on news websites across the globe. But the media attention and sudden interest in the test has health professionals concerned. With the questions freely distributed across the internet, has the validity and reliability of the MoCA been compromised?   What is the MoCA? The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a well-researched and widely used cognitive screening tool for detecting mild...

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