Examination of Mental Function

Question 1

Questions to determine the process of learning

Answer 1

• How does the child perceive, process, and remember information?
• How does the child collect, sort, store and retrieve information?
• What happens if a child is mobility impaired?

Question 2

Questions to determine the impact of sensory- motor functions on learning - input

Answer 2

• Is child about to see the information? Is visual acuity within its normal limits? What about visual discrimination?
• Is the child able to hear the information? Is hearing
  acuity within normal limits? What about auditory
  discrimination?

Question 3

Questions to determine the impact of sensory- motor functions on learning - Output

Answer 3

a. Is the child able to respond in writing?
b. Are fine motor abilities within normal limits?
c. Is the child able to respond orally?
d. Are language production abilities within normal limits

Question 4

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Answer 4

• Sensorimotor (birth to 2)
• Pre-Operational (2-7)
• Concrete Operational (7-11)
• Formal Operational (11-15)

Question 5

Sensori-Motor

Answer 5

• Birth to 2 years
• child begins to interact with the environment; pair sensory and motor actions: sucking, hitting, grasping, etc

Question 6

Pre-Operational

Answer 6

• 2-7 yo
• child begins to represent the world symbolically; center on one characteristic of object – all transportation is a “ride”, four-legged animals are “dogs”, pretend play

Question 7

Concrete Operational

Answer 7

• 7-11
• child learns rules such as Conservation, ability to classify objects

Question 8

Formal Operational

Answer 8

• 11-15 yo
• the adolescent can transcend the concrete situation and think about the future, formulate a hypothesis for decision making – frontal lobe develops

Question 9

Attention and Learning

Answer 9

1. Can child attend to certain stimuli while ignoring competing irrelevant stimuli?
2. Can child sustain attentional focus for a prolonged period? Attention span is 3- 5 minutes per each year of age.
3. Can child shift attention from one activity to another?
4. Can child respond to more than one task simultaneously – divide attention (sit up while playing with a toy)

Question 10

Relationship between language and cognition

Answer 10

A. There is receptive and expressive language
B. Child must understand words and sentences to perceive and process information (receptive language)
C. Child must use words to show he/she can retrieve information from memory (expressive language)

Question 11

Executive Functions – mental functions associated with the ability to engage in behaviors that are:

Answer 11

A. Purposeful
B. Organized
C. Self-regulated
D. Goal-directed

Question 12

When are executive functions first challenged

Answer 12

Grade School

Question 13

Informal Exam of mental function I children

Answer 13

A. Observation of development – motivation to move
B. Behavior
C. Play - complexity
D. Ability to follow directions
E. Speech/language
F. Memory
G. Humor
H. Communication Function Classification System (CFCS) –
purpose is to classify everyday communication performance.

Question 14

What is directly correlated with cognition?

Answer 14

speech/language

Question 15

6 m/o infant should remember what?

Answer 15

3 step sequence

Question 16

when do children develop humor?

Answer 16

they understand jokes around 6-7 yo

Question 17

Bayley Scales of Infant Development

Answer 17

1. Age 1-42 months
2. Components – cognitive, motor, behavioral
3. New research questioning accuracy of norms

Question 18

Batelle Développement Inventory Screening Test

Answer 18

1. Age: birth -7 years
2. Components: adaptive, personal-social, communication,
   cognitive, motor

Question 19

Hawaii Early Learning Profile

Answer 19

1. Age: birth – 6 years
2. Components: Cognitive, speech/language, fine motor,
   gross motor, self-help, emotional

Question 20

Ages and Stages Questionnaire

Answer 20

1. Age: 1-66 months
2. Components: communication, gross motor, fine motor,
   personal-social, problem solving

Question 21

Parent’s Evaluation of Development Status

Answer 21

1. Age: Birth-8 years
2. Components: Global/Cognitive, expressive language,
   receptive language, behavior, self-help, fine motor, gross
   motor, social-emotional, school

Question 22

Neurocognitive Testing

Answer 22

• ADHD: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• Executive function deficit