The following information is provided as guidance from the Cognassist software provider.

The screening assessment measures nine key cognitive domains that perform different functions as we learn and process information. Learners who identify with a need in one of these domains are likely to experience difficulties in some or all of the processing capacities covered by that domain, making it harder to perform certain tasks or keep up with their peers in the learning environment without the right support.

The nine key domains we assess are:

Literacy – This domain is not just about reading and spelling ability. The literacy domain also covers everything we perceive about language, including language processing power and speed, vocabulary, listening and speaking skills and expressing ideas with clarity.

Numeracy– The numeracy domain also is not just about doing sums and times tables. This domain involves various processes around numerical information, such as recognising patterns, ranking information, time management and financial reasoning. It is also an important indicator of working memory – our ability to hold and use information in the moment.

Executive function – This domain covers a range of control processes that allow us to perform some of our more complex cognitive tasks, controlling our attention, problem solving, reasoning and analysis, switching between tasks and ignoring distractions.

Reading Decoding – This domain involves a series of smaller skills, such as taking apart the sounds in words, known as “segmenting,” and then blending them together. It also uses knowledge of letter and sound relationships, and the ability to use that knowledge to identify written words and understand what they mean.

Verbal reasoning – This domain is about using knowledge or information to form conclusions or ideas of our own through generalising ideas, making predictions, forming concepts, answering questions and explaining how different things relate. It is important for abstract and conceptual thought.

Verbal memory – In the same way that we have long term and short-term memory, we also have different domains for remembering different types of information. The verbal memory domain is all to do with remembering written and spoken information. Information we are told, but also internal verbal information, like when we read or think to ourselves.

Non-verbal memory – Different to the previous domain, non-verbal memory is about remembering everything that is not spoken, like visual information, learning body language or facial expressions, recalling past events or objects in our mind, having a sense of direction and understanding abstract concepts.

Visual perception – this domain covers how we process and usevisual information, such as our hand/eye coordination, spatial processing, visualisation of past experiences or objects, copying visual information and deciphering visual tools such as maps, graphs, charts and diagrams. Visual perception is not just about vision; however, it also requires logical processing such as inductive and spatial reasoning.

Visual information processing speed – This domain is also about how we process visual information but more importantly how quickly we process it. In ways like reading or writing speed, reading and taking notes at the same time, listening and taking notes at the same time and response times to instructions or sudden changes. Visual processing speed also relates to more general cognitive processing speed, sustained attention and working memory.