First App in Poland for Assessing Cognitive Functions in Children and Adolescents
Researchers from SWPS University and the Educational Research Institute (IBE) have developed a new tool for the evaluation of cognitive functions in children, adolescents, and young adults (3 months to 25 years), including students with disabilities and special educational needs. The KAPP – Kompleksowa Analiza Procesów Poznawczych ("Complex Analysis of Cognitive Processes") diagnostic system enables very precise analysis of various cognitive functions in children. It is the first tool of its kind in Poland.
Revolutionizing Cognitive Assessment
For many years there has been a lack of suitable tools for diagnosing the cognitive functions of children and adolescents in psychological and pedagogical counseling centers. The currently used ones are usually not adapted to the needs of children with special educational needs.
The KAPP diagnostic system includes tests, questionnaires, and observation scales for testing cognitive functions such as memory, thinking, attention, speech, reading and writing skills. As the only diagnostic tool of its kind, KAPP enables conducting tests in the form of a computer application.
Cognitive abilities, meaning what?
The tests allow the examination of six areas of ability: basic executive functions (e.g. focus control, working memory) and complex executive functions (e.g. planning, reasoning), perception, speech, reading and writing.
This is the only set of tests available in Poland that can determine, for example, that a child can reason well but performs tasks too slowly. This makes it possible to detect disorders that may not have been noticed before.
Each task in the tests relates to a specific area of cognitive function. For example, a test in the area of perception, a sub-area of perceptual speed, requires the child to state whether the contents of each basket that has been shown to him or her are equal or not. It doesn't require complex thinking, but rather quick perceptual ability.
– We assess the ability to focus with a test in which the child presses an arrow when he or she sees a fish on the screen. Occasionally a shark appears and the child has to inhibit the dominant response of pressing the arrow – Prof. Magdalena Kaczmarczyk explained.
Who can participate in the tests?
– This specialized tool will be used in psychological and pedagogical counseling centers. In principle, all centers that sign an agreement with the Centre for Education Development (CED) will receive the tests, which will support the diagnostic process – Prof. Grzegorz Sędek says.
The tool will be provided to diagnosticians free of charge.
The Battery of Cognitive Tests is intended for children with above-average abilities who require more challenging versions of the tests, as well as for children with various problems, including those with visual and hearing impairments, students with autism spectrum disorder, learning and intellectual disabilities. Children for whom Polish is not their first language will also be able to use the tests, which can be very helpful for a large group of children from Ukraine.
The scientific basis is what matters most
The tests are based on procedures that have been used for years in experimental research on cognitive functioning. Because they are proven, they are known to actually measure specific cognitive functions and are adapted to meet diagnostic needs. As with any psychometric tool, the creators conducted normalization research to compare children's scores to current norms.
– Normalization research is a very large field study. The sample consists of a wide range of children, different age groups, geographic locations, large cities, small towns, and villages. An important advantage of these tests is that they are based on a solid series of studies that check whether they measure what they are supposed to. – Prof. Grzegorz Sędek explained.
– This was a very large undertaking. Together with the Educational Research Institute, we examined about 7,000 children. That's about 14,000 hours of research. In total, about 100 researchers from the SWPS University participated in the study, and more than 200 from the Educational Research Institute side. Moreover, because of the pandemic, the research was also conducted in the the facilities by people employed there – psychologists, school and kindergarten teachers – adds Prof. Magdalena Kaczmarek.
Diagnosis using the Cognitive Test Battery
The test takes approximately two hours to complete. It has a modular formula – based on the child's data, such as age or information about special needs, which are uploaded to the app, the system automatically selects a set of testing tools suitable for the individual child. The set is presented in the form of a list, but there is no obligation to take all the tests. It is the psychologist who decides which part of the examinations will be performed.
– Once the child has been tested, the result is automatically displayed. It is a digitalized, very accurate diagnosis, which is also visually appealing to the person being examined. The diagnostician immediately has a ready psychometric description, which is a big convenience, because with older tests they had to calculate the result themselves. This is a solution that did not exist before – Prof. Grzegorz Sędek says.
Moreover, the psychologist receives post-diagnostic materials that can be helpful in working with kids – educational games, lesson plans, leaflets, guides. Children can practice and improve the cognitive functions that are less developed.
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