Cognitive Ability	What it is	How it is important to learning	Related learning difficulties
Visual Thinking	To understand, manipulate and coordinate visual experiences as well as mentally constructed images.	Fundamental to many learning processes. At the concrete level; spelling, writing, and word recognition. At the abstract level; comprehension, conceptual learning, navigating complex information.	- Letter or number reversals - Disorganized hand-writing - Left & right confusion - Inefficient writing & copying - Superficial comprehension - Confusion following instructions
Logical Thinking	Problem-solving abilities based upon systematic and organized thinking. Includes reasoning abilities such as deductive, inductive, classification, seriation.	Important for all learning and understanding that goes beyond rote learning. Most educational content can be memorized to some degree. Meaningful and organized learning depends upon the ability to group facts and concepts and to place them in a hierarchical context.	- Preference for memorization over conceptual understanding - Poor math understanding - Difficulty with understanding main ideas and drawing inferences
Auditory Thinking	The ability to image and manipulate auditory experiences. Includes auditory abilities such as; figure-ground, discrimination, part-to-whole, and memory.	How we understand what we hear is primary to reading, following spoken instructions, learning a foreign language as well as music. A student who is able to give more precise and rich meaning to the sounds she hears brings more learning power to academic activities.	- Difficulty decoding written words - Difficulty distinguishing the speaker (teacher) from the background noise (classroom)
Receptive Communication	To follow instructions and give appropriate meaning to communications from others. Involves the coordination of Auditory, Logical, and Visual abilities.	Basic to understanding instructions and teaching. Important for social relationships. Relies on the concept of understanding other people's perspective and the ability to interpret the communication while keeping in mind the speaker's frame of reference.	- Confusion following instructions - Difficulty reading social cues - Poor memory of what was expressed - Completing assignments but not in the manner specified
Expressive Communication	To express knowledge or intentions to others. The ability to express oneself to others whether through spoken language, written language, or gesture. Involves the coordination of Auditory, Logical, and Visual abilities.	Written language is the most central expressive communication skill in traditional academic environments. While social situations depend on well-developed expressive abilities most schools focus on writing and difficulties with organized expression of ideas is the more commonly identified issue.	- Disorganized written work - Difficulty constructing a coherent and meaningful essay - Giving confused or inconsistent instructions to others - Poor social skills
Digital Discriminative Movement	To efficiently and comfortably coordinate one's fingers in problem solving tasks.	Fundamental in the use of tools such as pencils, pens, scissors and keyboards. Underdeveloped ability to coordinate one's fingers can make tasks such as writing and keyboarding inefficient, inaccurate, or fatiguing.	- Fatigue from writing - Difficulty opening packages - Difficulty closing or opening fasteners. - Trouble with keyboarding
Ocular Discriminative Movement	To efficiently and comfortably coordinate one's eyes. Includes eye tracking, convergence, and, focusing. Evaluated by Developmental Optometrist	Important for reading, writing and other fine motor precision tasks. Also key for ball sports that emphasize tracking and striking moving objects. Inefficient eye-coordination can contribute to irritability, errors, and fatigue when learning.	- Skipping lines - Re-reading lines - Fatigue from reading/writing - Remediated by Developmental Optometrist
Representational Thinking	To represent one's knowledge in different media including drawing, models, sculpture, and music.	Important for project-based learning where students' knowledge is expressed in the construction of models, murals, plans, and prototypes.	- Difficulty expressing non-traditional types of learning. - Poorly conceived or executed projects - Difficulty working independently
Body & Sense Thinking	To coordinate one's body efficiently and effectively. Includes construction of body knowledge such as the mental map of the body, coordination of the three axes and reciprocal motion.	Body and sense thinking forms the foundation for many Cognitive Abilities. Spatial thinking, for example, depends on well-developed body and sense knowledge. Body and sense thinking is important in its own right for athletics, bike riding, dance and swimming.	- Left & right confusion - Running in an awkward manner that lacks fluidity - Difficulty with sports, bike riding, or swimming.
Spatial Thinking	To accurately understand and navigate spatial environments as well as the understanding of spatial concepts.	Important for academic subjects that emphasize spatial concepts such as fractions, graphs, and outlines. Physics, chemistry, engineering emphasize complex spatial concepts.	- Difficulty interpreting or creating graphical displays. - Learning spatial concepts by memory instead of understanding