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Assessment Information
Purpose of the Assessment
Current professional, comprehensive cognitive skill testing is generally expensive or difficult to obtain. Private professional testing typically costs in excess of $1000. If a child is in school, it is very difficult to get a school to do this type of testing. The Gibson Cognitive Skills Test was created to provide anyone access to a professional, comprehensive cognitive skills assessment that is easy to take and affordable.
Taking the Assessment
The GCSTest contains seven sub sections. It takes about 35-40 minutes to complete the assessment. The assessment should be taken in one sitting. A computer with high-speed internet connection and Flash 9 is required. The instructions and many of the questions are auditory. The computer has to be equipped with speakers or a headphone. If the assessment is being taken in a computer lab, headphones are a must.
Used as a screening tool
This assessment is not intended to diagnose any learning disability. However, it will provide you with a measure of eleven core cognitive skills and provide you with an indication of relative strengths and weaknesses. It should identify problem areas that may require more extensive testing to achieve a proper diagnosis.
One of our key supporters whose organization works with over 50,000 kids in urban schools calls the test his Red Light / Green Light test. If the score is low, the school knows they need to strengthen that child’s cognitive skills before expecting academic programs to work properly. If the score is high and the child is under performing, the school should look for other causes.
What cognitive Skills are measured?
The GCSTest measures 11 different core cognitive skills.
1. Processing Speed
The speed with which the brain processes information.
2. Working Memory
To temporarily retain information while processing or manipulating it.
3. Visual Memory
The part of memory that preserves some characteristics of our senses pertaining to visual experience. We are able to place in memory information that resembles objects, places, animals or people in a sort of a mental image.
4. Auditory Memory
Memory process that involves being able to take in information that is presented orally to you, process that information, store it in your mind and then recall what you have heard.
5. Short-Term Memory
That part of memory which is said to be able to hold a small amount of information for about 20 seconds. Estimates of short-term memory capacity vary from about 3 or 4 elements (IE, words, digits, or letters) to about 9 elements.
6. Long-Term Memory
Memory, stored as meaning, that can last as little as 30 seconds or as long as decades.
7. Word Attack
Word attack skills are the ability to convert graphic symbols into intelligible language.
8. Visual Processing
The sequence of steps that information takes as it flows from visual sensors to cognitive (mental) processing. To process and make use of visual images.
9. Auditory Analysis Segmenting
To determine the number, sequence, and which sounds are within a word.
10. Auditory Analysis Drop
The ability to understand the sounds that remain after you take a word and drop a sound. For example, take the word cat. What remains if you drop the c? This is tested by auditory means.
11. Logic & Reasoning
To reason, plan, and think
To see a sample report, click here.
To read a document that explains fully why anyone should test, click here.
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