The Thinking Skills Workbook: A Cognitive Skills Remediation Manual for Adults, ed 3.

The Thinking Skills Workbook: A Cognitive Skills Remediation Manual for Adults, ed 3

Tondat-Ruggeri L, Languirand M, Caruso JL. Springfield, IL 62704, Charles C Thomas Publisher Ltd, 2000, spiralbound, 282 pp, illus, ISBN: 0-398-07068-7, $39.95.

This workbook is targeted for use with people with cognitive deficits and is designed to be administered on a one-to-one basis by a health care professional, paraprofessional, or family member. It uses ordinary language throughout, referring to the participants as "learner" and "teacher."

The book contains 6 chapters. Chapter 1 describes the recovery process and possible ways to document recovery. Chapter 2 contains a 5-part pretest that examines attention, concentration, listening, scheduling, time management, memory, reasoning, and comprehension. Based on the scores of the pretest, the reader is guided to specific training modules within the text.

The bulk of the workbook is dedicated to these training modules. Each module corresponds to one of the training skills tested initially. The modules are arranged in order of increasing complexity, and each section or subsection contains a different number of examples or exercises, from 10 to 33. For example, in the section on concentration, there are 27 exercises for matching objects, 22 exercises for advanced matching, 10 exercises for picture completion, 10 examples of copying, and 36 questions on map reading.

Chapters 4 and 5 are new to the third edition. They address how to maintain wellness through nutrition, stress management, and physical activity' and how mood problems affect thinking abilities. Chapter 6 concludes with a posttest.

A notable feature of this workbook is the pretest, which helps the person administering the workbook to identify problem areas and individualize each program. The modules themselves are presented clearly, with 1 to 3 exercises per page. The directions for each set of exercises are easy to understand. The posttest allows the participants to document progress objectively.

The discussions on nutrition, stress management, and physical activity, although related to performance issues, seem out of place in a cognitive remediation workbook. The topics are treated with broad strokes, with general guidelines that could be better presented elsewhere. However, the authors do include a fairly extensive list of resources on these topics.

The primary market for this book would be occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, and caregivers. The book will have greatest value for those clinicians who are not familiar with cognitive deficits.

Carolyn Vaillancourt, PT, MS, NCS HealthSouth Braintree Rehabilitation Center Braintree, Mass

Ms Vaillancourt is a Senior Therapist in an outpatient facility. She currently serves on the Specialization Academy of Content Experts in Neurology.