Thinking

next page

Overview | Understanding thinking | Cognitive processes (4) | Types of thinking (4) | Design guidance (2) | Pop. stats. (2)

Population statistics

Prevalence data | Demand & exclusion

Thinking ability level

The ability level is calculated using this table, which considers the number of disabilities from the list below

T1 11 disabilities T7 5 disabilities
T2 10 disabilities T8 4 disabilities
T3 9 disabilities T9 3 disabilities
T4 8 disabilities T10 2 disabilities
T5 7 disabilities T11 1 disability
T6 6 disabilities T12 Full thinking ability

Thinking disabilities

  • Often loses track of what is being said in the middle of a conversation
  • Thoughts tend to be muddled or slow
  • Often gets confused about what time of day it is
  • Cannot watch a 30 minute TV programme all the way through, and tell someone what it was about
  • Cannot read a short newspaper article
  • Cannot write a short letter to someone without help
  • Cannot count well enough to handle money
  • Cannot remember a message and pass it on correctly
  • Often forgets to turn things off, such as fires, cookers or taps
  • Often forgets the names of friends and family that are seen regularly
  • Often forgets what was supposed to be doing in the middle of something
Graph showing the percentage of people in each thinking ability level.

Graph showing the distribution of thinking ability, where those with full ability (T12) are not shown.

Important note
These thinking ability levels and prevalence statistics are taken directly from the 1996/97 Disability Follow-up Survey (Grundy et al. 1999), which was commissioned by the government to plan welfare support. The GB adult population was 45.6 million people at the time of this survey. Please see the Framework section for more detail.