What are cognitive and perceptual deficits?

Also known as: perceptual and cognitive disorder, functional impairments, cognitive and perceptual dysfunction.

• Cognition is the mental process that allows us to acquire information and knowledge - it allows a child to understand and act in the world around him/her. It includes: language, memory, attention, judgment, a knowledge base, reasoning, and planning and other important mental abilities.
• Perceptual deficits are one of the types of learning disorder which may involve: information entering the brain (input), how information is processed and interpreted (integration), how memory is stored and recalled (memory), how information is used (output). It is how a child perceives what they see or hear.

Both may be mild, moderate or severe.

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Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM