The table below describes in detail the conditions of deficient or impaired cognitive functioning at each of the 3 stages of the thinking process and where these deficiencies can occur in a child.

STAGE 1: INPUT STAGE

• Blurred and sweeping perception.

• Unplanned, impulsive, and unsystematic exploratory behaviour.

• Lack of, or impaired, receptive verbal tools which affect discrimination (e.g. objects, events, relationships, etc. do not have appropriate labels).

• Lack of, or impaired, spatial orientation; the lack of stable systems of reference impairs the establishment of topological and Euclidean organization of space.

• Lack of, or impaired, temporal concepts.

• Lack of, or impaired, conservation of constancies (size, shape, quantity, orientation) across variation in these factors.

• Lack of, or deficient, need for precision and accuracy in data gathering.

• Lack of capacity for considering two or more sources of information at once; this is reflected in dealing with data in a piecemeal fashion, rather than as a unit of organized facts.

STAGE 2: ELABORATION STAGE

• Inadequacy in the perception of the existence and definition of an actual problem.

• Inability to select relevant vs. non-relevant cues in defining a problem.

• Lack of spontaneous comparative behaviour or limitation of its application by a restricted need system.

• Narrowness of the psychic field.

• Episodic grasp of reality.

• Lack of, or impaired, need for pursuing logical evidence.

• Lack of, or impaired, interiorisation.

• Lack of, or impaired, inferential-hypothetical, “iffy” thinking.

• Lack of, or impaired, strategies for hypothesis testing.

• Lack of, or impaired, ability to define the framework necessary for problem-solving behaviour.

• Lack of, or impaired, planning behaviour.

• Impaired cognitive functions affecting the Elaboration level include those factors which impede the efficient use of available data and existing cues.

STAGE 3: OUTPUT STAGE

• Egocentric communicational modalities.

• Difficulties in projecting virtual relationships.

• Blocking.

• Trial and error responses.

• Lack of, or impaired, tools for communicating adequately elaborated responses.

• Lack of, or impaired, need for precision and accuracy in communicating one’s responses.

• Deficiency of visual transport.

• Impulsive, acting-out behaviour.

• Impaired cognitive functions at the Output level include those factors that lead to an inadequate communication of final solutions. It should be noted that even adequately perceived data and appropriate elaboration can be expressed as an incorrect or haphazard solution if difficulties exist at this level specifically.

IMPEDIMENTS CAN OCCUR AT ANY OF THE STAGES OF THE THINKING PROCESS

INPUT FUNCTIONS - ENVIRONMENT AND OBSERVATION
The brain's ability to collect necessary, useful accurate and adequate information
Sometimes the environmental stimulation is not sufficient, strong, explicit or clear (to the specific child). They may require a little mediation to decipher the signals from their environment. For example they may have weak information gathering skills via their sensory perceptions such as lack of observational skills.

BRAIN PROCESSORS
The brain's ability to make connections and pathways
The child may not be ready to process the received stimulation. The problem may not be in observation and deciphering signals bit in how to connect or process them for the required output.

OUTPUT FUNCTIONS

The brain's ability to communicate effective response

Sometimes the brain can decipher and process signals but lacks the necessary function to provide an output that is effective and required, and pitched right. This is a very common problem in thinking skills development in young children. 

A child could suffer from some of the deficiencies and be fine with others. For example in CONTENT instructions a child is generally guided to recall previous understanding on the topic or similar experience which is then scaffolded so that the child can use that to progress to the next level of understanding.

In THINKING SKILLS TRAINING the child would be taught skills for observation and information gathering, of deciphering signals, what to look for, how to look, and what to do when they get stuck with new problems and unfamiliar topics and ideas.

When things fall outside the child's Zone of Proximal Development (ZDP), the child needs a coach to break it down for them personally, making it explicit and guiding them into activating and engaging the required thinking skills. This level of intervention is seldom possible in a classroom situation where the focus may be on the subject content, and thinking skills development in its raw and detailed form may perhaps be a secondary concern of that lesson.

During Thinking Skills Training the child is also taught universal and transferable skills so that next time they can apply these independently to new and novel situations and become self aware of their thinking habits and patterns.

During the process of remedial or isolated and targeted training and coaching a child becomes familiar with their different stages of thinking and generally are able to self identify which stages are causing them issues at any particular time of learning. This helps them address their thinking in bite size pieces rather than a vague, wholesale and much more difficult approach.