1. How has your understanding of cognitive levels changed as you have learned more about cognition and how to screen for cognitive levels?
2. Why do you think it is important to understand cognitive levels as an occupational therapy practitioner?
3. When might you need to understand cognition as an occupational therapy practitioner?
4. Briefly describe your experience completing the Allen Cognitive Level Screen (ACLS) at the Ability IS center. What did you determine as the ACL of your assigned client?
5. How did completing the ACLS with a community client help you understand the purpose of Allen Cognitive Levels?
6. How did planning and running a group designed for a specific ACL help you as a future OT practitioner? Would you do anything different now that you have completed an ACLS on a community client and have observed other classmates run their groups?
1. Honestly i didn't know how these tests could give you so much information on the client. Now I see that the way the grade is broken down it gives a lot of information of their abilities just based on one test.
2. I think it is important to understand cognitive levels so that we can correctly choose interventions. We want them to be able to complete the activity but still push them a little without it being too overwhelming for the client.
3. It is important to think of cognitive levels with individuals with TBI, dementia, and other cognitive issues that may cause some sort of deficit.
4. I thought the experience at Ability IS was so much fun. It was cool to put our work into practice. The individual was able to complete the running stitch and that was it. She was also not able to identify mistakes made. She really enjoyed trying and got very excited when she tried something new even if it was wrong. It was cool to see her excitement and her willingness to try.
5. It helped me to see that there is more than what we see on the surface. Of course we should never judge someone's ability based on first impressions but sometimes people do. Then activities such as this task can shock you with what is going on inside.
6. I would have prepped more by reading the book. I had an understanding of all the stitches and in what order they need to be performed. I had to resort back to the book a lot for all of the other steps of the test. Such as the mistakes and specific wording of the test.