Following different kinds of brain damage, including stroke, head injury, carbon monoxide poisoning, and degenerative change, people can experience a range of cognitive problems, in addition to any difficulties in motor function. These problems strongly influence a patient’s ability to recover, but often patients are not routinely screened to detect them.

BCoS Cognitive Screen is a new test instrument. The test pack consists of a manual, a ringbound Test Book, the Auditory Attention Test stimuli on CD, a pack of 15 Examiner Booklets, a pack of 15 Examinee booklets, and a set of test objects, all contained in a durable messenger bag.

Developed to screen patients for cognitive problems, it provides a novel ‘cognitive profile’ across a range of cognitive processes within a one-hour testing session, that will indicate whether a patient has a clinical impairment (related to norms) in five primary domains of cognition:

Attention and executive function

Language

Memory

Number skills

Praxis and action

BCoS has been validated against ‘standard’ neuropsychological tests used to measure similar cognitive functions. It has also been used for prognostic modelling, and assessed against measures of cognition and activities of everyday living for patients in the chronic stage.

The first test of its kind, BCoS is an invaluable tool for neuropsychologists, neuropsychiatrists, occupational and speech therapists, and a wide range of other clinical practitioners.

Training on administration of the assessment is available from http: //www.cognitionmatters.co.uk/

The following items are available as free downloads from http: //www.cognitionmatters.co.uk/ or buy them from Psychology Press:

BCoS Examiner’s Booklet (Pack of 15): http: //www.psypress.com/birmingham-cognitive-screen-9781848721074

BCoS Examinee’s Booklet (Pack of 15): http: //www.psypress.com/birmingham-cognitive-screen-9781848721081

BCoS Examiner’s Booklet B (Pack of 15): http: //www.psypress.com/birmingham-cognitive-screen-9781848721104

BCoS is supported by the Stroke Association, http: //www.stroke.org.uk/