As an educator and school psychologist, I have often been asked to provide information about different learning disabilities. In my past blogs, I have written about processing disorders or learning challenges that are more common such as auditory or visual processing. However, in this post I am hoping to shed light on an area of processing that is often unclear or misunderstood due to lack of familiarity or experience with the terms. Admittedly, this area of processing was the least familiar to me as a school psychologist and as such I have spent quite a large amount of time learning and researching the definitions to gain better understanding. My goal in this post is to share the information I have acquired, expose more of educators to the terms and definitions of Cognitive Abilities: Conceptualization, Association and Expression and deepen our understanding of how these processing disorders impact our students.
In order to clearly understand the disorder of cognitive abilities, it is important to acquire a few basic understandings. First, the disorder of cognitive abilities is comprised of three categories: Conceptualization, Association, and Expression. Secondly, each of these categories is distinctly different for one another and impacts distinct cognitive domains. Lastly, the way each of these categories presents in a student is distinctive and not necessarily interrelated.
To further understand the disorder of cognitive abilities, it is important to have a clear definition of each of the categories, the cognitive domains most likely impact, and examples of how it may present in the students we support. Below is a table with this information:
To further understand the disorder of cognitive abilities, it is important to have a clear definition of each of the categories, the cognitive domains most likely impact, and examples of how it may present in the students we support. Below is a table with this information:
In order to support students with this processing deficit, it would be most effective to identify the cognitive domain most impacted (i.e. Long-term memory, short-term memory, processing speed, crystallized knowledge, fluid reasoning, etc.) and then tailor instructional interventions and accommodations to those areas of deficit. For example, if a student was struggling with cognitive conceptualization, it would be most useful to identify strategies to support a student with fluid reasoning deficits. I hope this information will help in planning for our students with disorders in cognitive abilities, as well as, other learning challenges.
Blog post written by:
Meka Tull, Director of School Partnerships & Director of Special Education at
Lighthouse and Lodestar
Meka Tull, Director of School Partnerships & Director of Special Education at
Lighthouse and Lodestar
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