Application of the Allen Cognitive Level Test in assessing cognitive level functioning of emotionally disturbed boys

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the applicability of the Allen Cognitive Level Test (ACL) (Allen, 1982, 1985), developed for use with adult psychiatric patients, to emotionally disturbed children aged 8 to 15 years. The subjects' performance on the ACL was compared with their performance on two other instruments that measure features of cognition: the Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration (VMI) (Beery & Buktenica, 1982) and the Perceptual Memory Task (McCarron, 1984). Pearson product-moment correlations were computed to study the relationships of the ACL, the Perceptual Memory Task full-scale and subscale scores, and the VMI raw and age-equivalent scores. The Perceptual Memory Task scores showed little or no correlation with the ACL scores. Correlations of the ACL with the VMI scores revealed moderate but significant coefficients. A relationship between age and ACL score was found. Preliminary data would indicate that the ability of emotionally disturbed children to function in the school environment depends on their mastery of task demands and that occupational therapy intervention cannot be based solely on age or level of intelligence.