Health and Psychology blog

Dr Fiona Scott is an experience trainer running our recent ADOS-2 Clinical Workshops and Managing Director of Spectrum Specialist Consultancy Ltd. This week we interviewed Dr Scott to find out more about what inspired her to enter her field and who is her role model! 

Earlier this month we spoke to Dr Tom Grange, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, to find out about his experiences of using Q-interactive and his hopes that the delivery of tests via iPad will become the future of all psychometrics.

Richard Johnson has been with Pearson Assessment for just over 18 months and has been involved in the exciting process of launching two new digital assessment platforms within the UK; Q-global and Q-interactive.

Following the launch of 25 products on the Q-global platform last week, we caught up with Richard to find out more.

When The Beatles coined the infamous phrase, ‘Will you still need me? Will you still feed me, when I’m 64?’ many of us sung along giving little thought to the reality of the situation, which according to a new report published by Relate charity is now being faced by many older people in the UK.1

Something to brighten up a Friday afternoon. A new review of the Brief Cognitive Status Exam (BCSE) by Dr Chris. Hamilton, Consultant Clinical Psychologist.

We're delighted to congratulate Professor Alan Baddeley FRS CBE on receiving this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Psychological Society’s Research Board.

Professor Alan Baddeley is a psychologist whose research interests are in human memory, neuropsychology and in the practical application of cognitive psychology. He has published very widely on theoretical aspects of memory and was one of the authors of the original Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test (RBMT). For many years he was the Director of the Medical Research Council’s Applied Psychology Unit (now the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit) and is currently Professor in the Department of Psychology, University of York.

Professor Badderley is co-author of a number of Pearson Assessment's tools, including the new Spot the Word - Second Edition (STW-2), Doors and People, and the bestselling Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test - Third Edition (RBMT-3). View his range of asssessments on our author page.

Read the full article from the BPS.

This week has definitely got off to a positive start with more product reviews coming into our inbox.

The first is from Dr. Carol A. Ireland, CPsychol, MBA, Forensic Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, University of Central Lancashire and CCATS (Coastal Child and Adolescent Therapy Services) - and Editor of British Journal of Forensic Psychology who has kindly reviewed The Functional Living Scales, UK Version for the BJFP. Here's just a snippet of the full review which you can read on our website:

The TFLS UK has "helpful applicability with the relevant populations, such as assisting in questions of competence and levels of independent living. It is however more suited for community populations, including community forensic populations, as opposed to clients in a secure setting, and where their daily living as assessed by this tool may be more restricted. A strength of this assessment is its focus on the more complex skills required for independent living, and which are more cognitively demanding. It can therefore be considered a robust tool for assessing these more multifaceted components, with a general opinion that it is these components which can first be noted to disintegrate with neurodegenerative disorders, as opposed to the more basic aspects of daily care. As such, there is the potential to identify difficulties much earlier, and to then put in place supportive measures and interventions for the individual. It also moves away from a traditional over-reliance on the self-report of others when making a judgement on these skills, and focuses more directly on the observed ability in the client...Overall this is a helpful instrument."

The second review comes via the British Psychological Society Testing Centre where Joanna Horne & Angus McDonald have carried out an evaluation of the key features of the Wechsler Memory Scale - Fourth UK Edition (WMS-IV UK). Describing the WMS-IV UK as "a very well−developed psychometric assessment of memory in adults that provides rich information" the reviewers have awarded 5 stars to the Quality of Materials and 4.5 stars to the key characteristic of Overall Reliability and the Quality of Documentation. Find out more about the WMS here.

Many thanks to all our reviewers, we'll be publishing details of new product reviews here shortly! If you're interested in reviewing one of our assessments or want to share your best practice please do contact us at marketing@pearsonclinical.co.uk

It’s always an exciting moment when a new product review comes through and even more so when it’s written by the eminent author Professor Barbara A Wilson, OBE.

Read what Professor Wilson said about Spot the Word, Second Edition (STW 2).