The British Psychological Society

Guidance on Neuropsychological Testing with Individuals who have Intellectual Disabilities

Rate
  • Member price £3.00
  • Member Network price £0.00
  • Non-member price £4.00

This is a PDF download licensed for personal use only - read full licence terms.

By placing your order you agree to the British Psychological Society’s Terms and Conditions. Please also see our Privacy Notice and Cookies Information.

Terms and Conditions

By using the BPS Shop website, you are signifying your agreement to these Terms and Conditions.

Document downloads

  1. If you encounter problems downloading a document, please contact the Customer Support Team at [email protected] for support.
  2. The document download service is provided ‘as is’ with no warranties implied, either express of implied.
     

Copyright and permissions

  1. The British Psychological Society is the copyright holder for all documents available to download from this website, unless otherwise stated.
  2. Unauthorised copying, distribution, public display, public performance, and derivative works from downloaded documents are prohibited by copyright law, unless the publication has a Creative Commons licence.
  3. Publications marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence are copyright of the British Psychological Society, but can be freely shared, in whole or in part, in digital or printed formats, for non-commercial purposes as long as the British Psychological Society is credited, and according to the same licence terms. Users are not permitted to distribute any adaptations of the work, including translations.
  4. For Translation requests please email [email protected]
  5. You may reproduce any downloaded document as many times as you wish for personal use, or quote short sections for the purposes of criticism or review, under the terms of ‘fair dealing’ and ‘fair use’ under UK and EU copyright laws. If you wish to republish an article downloaded from this website please visit our clearance service https://plsclear.com/
  6. If you require institutional licensing please email [email protected]


Customer accounts

  1. Customers are responsible for making sure that their account details (e.g. email and postal address) are up-to-date.
  2. Customers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their username and password, and preventing authorised access to their accounts.
  3. Users must inform the Customer Support Team at [email protected] immediately if they suspect that their password has become known to someone else or has been (or is likely to be) use in an authorised manner.
  4. By providing personal information on the ‘checkout’ page, you are agreeing to the BPS processing and holding it as per our privacy policy www.bps.org.uk/privacy-policy
  5. The email address you provide as part of your account information may be used by the British Psychological Society to communicate with you in matters relating to your order (and if you are a member of the British Psychological Society, in other matters relating to your Society membership).

Description and price of goods

  1. Every effort will be made to ensure that the description and price of products are correct at the time of purchase.
  2. Product images are for illustrative purposes only and may differ from the actual product.

    Whilst The British Psychological Society has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information available on its websites is true and accurate in all material respects, it is essential that you verify all such information with The British Psychological Society before taking any action in reliance upon it. It is a condition of The British Psychological Society allowing you free access to the material on this site that you accept that The British Psychological Society will not be liable for any action you take in reliance on the information on the site.
     

Upon leaving this website through a link, The British Psychological Society will not be liable for any subsequent actions you take, or liable for any information not on this website. Please also note that the services described in this website are provided in England and the statements governed by English Law. On no account shall any statement on this website constitute an offer to provide services.

We will do our best to ensure uninterrupted access to the BPS Shop website and error-free transmission of data, but due to the nature of the internet this cannot be guaranteed. We will do our best to notify you of any planned outage.

 

 

Quick Overview

This guidance aims to provide clinical and other qualified psychologists with information to support them in carrying out neuropsychological assessments with adults with intellectual disabilities.

This document is derived from the document Guidance on the use of neuropsycholgical tests in learning disabilities services (4th edition, January 2012). It was developed for use in Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Croydon Health Services NHS Trust.

The following people have contributed to the development of the document: Editions 1 and 2: Heather Liddiard & Carol Hagland; Edition 3: Heather Liddiard & Julian Morris; Edition 4: Zillah Webb, Heather Liddiard & Karen Dodd.

 

Contents

Section 1: Introduction

  • Objectives
  • Rationale
  • Clinical population
  • National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance

Section 2: Context

  • Definition of intellectual disabilities
  • Causes of intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding cognition
    • Understanding and measuring general intellectual ability
    • General intellectual ability in people with intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding and measuring memory
    • Memory in adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding and measuring attention
    • Development of attention in typically developing individuals
    • Attention in adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding and measuring executive functioning
    • Executive functioning in adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding language
    • Language in adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Understanding and measuring perception
    • Perception in adults with intellectual disabilities
  • Cognitive profiles of some conditions associated with intellectual disabilities
    • Autism spectrum conditions
    • Down's syndrome
    • Fragile X syndrome 15
    • Klinefelter syndrome
    • Prader-Willi syndrome
    • Turner's syndrome
    • William's syndrome
  • Factors that can impact on cognitive functioning/test performance
    • Motivation and effort
    • Fatigue
    • Epilepsy
    • Medication
    • Use of drugs/alcohol
    • Head injury/concussions
    • Physical and mental health
    • Motor/sensory impairments
    • Culture and diversity

Section 3: Guidance

  • Ethical testing
    • Capacity and consent
    • Confidentiality
    • Emotional distress
  • Information gathering
  • Identification of areas to be assessed/questions to be answered
  • Test selection
    • The question to be answered
    • Characteristics of the individual
    • Characteristics of the tests
  • Setting up the test situation
    • Safety
    • Presence of others in the test situation
    • Ensuring the individual is prepared
    • Structuring the testing process
  • Test administration
    • Standardised administration
    • Non-standard administration
    • Computerised test administration
    • Observation during testing
  • Scoring tests
    • Computerised scoring systems/report writers
  • Interpretation of results and formulation
  • Recommendations for therapy, rehabilitation and mitigation of deficits
  • Presenting and disseminating findings
    • Feedback
    • Report writing
  • Storage of test record forms
  • Outcomes
  • Service user evaluations
  • Reassessment

Section 4: Tests

  • Tests of general intellectual ability
  • Measures of learning
  • Tests of memory
  • Tests of executive functioning

Section 5: Summary

  • References

Appendices

  • Appendix 1: Consent form for IQ and neuropsychological testing
  • Appendix 2: Accessible information leaflet about cognitive assessment
  • Appendix 3: Suggested report headings and issues to consider
  • Appendix 4: Comparison of scores from different versions of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale

 

SKU: PUB-CAT-1783

BPS Shop – Licence terms for document downloads

Unless marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence, all electronic publications downloaded from the BPS Shop, whether free or for a charge, are copyright of the British Psychological Society and are for personal use only. Any downloaded document may not be distributed, republished or reproduced (either electronically or by other means) without permission, other than as allowed by ‘fair dealing’ and ‘fair use’ under UK and EU copyright laws. If you wish to republish or redistribute an article downloaded from the BPS shop, or if you would like any other kind of licence, please email [email protected] with your request.

Publications marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence are copyright of the British Psychological Society, but can be freely shared, in whole or in part, in digital or printed formats, for non-commercial purposes as long as the British Psychological Society is credited, and according to the same licence terms. Users are not permitted to distribute any adaptations of the work, including translations.