5 Minute cognitive test SeetoMD
People ask me, how do you assess a person's mental ability? It's easy to ask a few questions if that person is willing. For example: Do you know the year, month, and day? A lot of normal people can miss a day or two, but if you don't know the month or year, that's a problem. Can I ask you three words? Give them three unrelated words such as table, yellow, turkey. You quiz her in five minutes. In addition, how much is 100 minus 7, and then minus 7, repeat five times. But I found that in American society it is obvious that normal people don't subtract 7 from 100. Sometimes I will ask them to do 100 minus 3. Or I ask you a dollar, it costs three cents, then you can also ask her how much to name all the animals that come to mind in a minute, if the number is less than 10, that may be a problem. Then ask them to draw a diagram. Sometimes I'll ask them to draw the face of a clock and put all the numbers on it. If everything is messed up, that could be a problem. Put the long and short hands of the clock at 11:10. If they can do that, great. This is a good indication that they are well oriented in space. I also had them do a test called "Go-No-Go". When I clap once, you clap once. If I clap twice, you don't clap. Sometimes I clap my hands three times, and if they laugh, they have a sense of humor. But if I clap twice and she claps twice, it means they have a inhibition problem, an frontal lobe problem. You have a simple conversation and look at their vocabulary usage, including comprehension. You can ask what's on the news, but many people say they don't read the news. You ask where they were born and where they went to school. You can tell if they are able to remember the past or at least significant events.
Then you know if there is something wrong with the person.
If something goes wrong, it's time to make an appointment with a doctor to check it out.
