APPENDIX F

Characteristics Common for Persons with Cognitive Disabilities[1]

¨    Deficits in abstract reasoning ability;

¨    Poor judgment;

¨    Memory deficits;

¨    Learning style which involves the need for tasks to be broken down into component parts and taught in steps;

¨    Reduced capacity for short and/or long-term planning;

¨    Reduced capacity to problem solve;

¨    Reduced capacity to appropriately complete money transactions;

¨    Reduced capacity to manage money or budget appropriately;

¨    Reduced capacity to effectively use public transportation systems effectively independently;

¨    Deficits in logical analysis;

¨    Reduced capacity to concentrate;

¨    Reduced ability to generalize skills learned in one context to another context;

¨    History of not having achieved developmental milestones of sitting up, crawling, walking, talking, and/or toileting in a timely fashion;

¨    Increased passivity;

¨    Decreased insight;

¨    Perceptual difficulties;

¨    Reduced behavioral self-control resulting from cognitive as opposed to psychiatric impairments;

¨    Vulnerability, i.e., increased likelihood of being manipulated or exploited by others;

¨    Reduced ability to adapt to new situations;

¨    Reduce ability to communicate with others;

¨    Reduced ability to use expressive and receptive language;

¨    Difficulty in the area of mobility (fine/gross motor control/movement);

¨    Reduced capacity to live independently in the community;

¨    Difficulty with daily living in the home/residence;

¨    Reduced ability to self-direct activities (e.g. keep appointments, follow a schedule, take medication without prompting);

¨    Reduced ability to profit from experience;

¨    Reduced ability to be economically self-sufficient (vocational skills, job finding/work adjustment);

¨    Need for structure/predictable external environments or systems;

¨    Reduced ability to organize, plan or prioritize tasks, affairs, or activities;

¨    Deficits in appropriate social skills and behaviors;

¨    Reduced ability to engage in leisure activities;

¨    Reduced ability and/or tendency to maintain personal hygiene;

¨    Can’t tell time effectively or at all;

¨    Difficulty with health and safety issues (e.g. runs into traffic, burns self when cooking);

¨    Substandard cognitive functioning (generally at least one standard deviation below the mean or lower, i.e., 85 or lower as measured by standardized IQ tests, although scores in the range of mental retardation (70 or below) are not necessary for a showing of a condition closely related to mental retardation);

¨    Substandard adaptive functioning as measured by standardized tests of adaptive behavior such as the Vineland Scales Comprehensive Test of Adaptive Behavior, Street Skills Survival Questionnaire, etc.  Generally, look for scores in the seventies or lower or behavior composites three or more years below chronological age.