Comparison of impairment and disability measures for assessing severity of, and improvement in, aphasia

Abstract

The relationship between impairment and disability measures was examined for assessing initial severity of, and change in, aphasia. Twenty-two aphasic adults were administered three aphasia tests at two points in time. Videotaped speech samples were collected and scored using Correct Information Unit and Main Concept analyses. Ten normal listeners viewed randomized, paired preand post-samples to provide a social judgement of change. Most impairment measures were signi®cantly related, and most predicted disability scores. Change on most impairment measures was not related, and change on only one impairment measure predicted change in disability. Three of the connected speech measures predicted listener judgements. Thus, some redundancy was observed among measures in the ability to determine severity and measure change, but the results do not support one measure as an adequate replacement for another. Moreover, the relationship between change on the standardized impairment and disability measures and listener perception of change was, at best, moderate.

Social Validity of Changes in Informativeness and Efficiency of Aphasic Discourse Following Linguistic Specific Treatment (LST)

“…Brookshire and Nicholas (1994a) maintained that a difference of less than 3 CIUs/min is ''probably not a clinically significant difference' ' (p. 126). The CIU analysis has been employed in a number of recent studies of speakers with aphasia (e.g., Doyle, Goda, & Spencer, 1995;Ross & Wertz, 1999) that reported the reliability of these measures was consistent with Brookshire and Nicholas's findings (e.g., Doyle et al reported 88% reliability for CIU scoring).…”

“…Traditional assessment of aphasia (i.e., standardized aphasia tests) involves identifying impaired components of the language system, whereas discourse analysis assesses the actual language performance in relation to the speaker and the communication context. Analyzing the connected speech of individuals with aphasia offers greater potential for determining communication abilities and deficits in more natural conditions than standardized aphasia tests (Larfeuil & Le Dorze, 1997;Ross & Wertz, 1999). Larfeuil and Le Dorze, for example, found differences between discourse measures, which reflected no change over time, and standardized tests, which reflected improved performance.…”

Comprehensive Overview of Nursing and Interdisciplinary Rehabilitation Care of the Stroke Patient

“…322,343,355,472 It is often useful to administer activity and participation measures once patients have returned to their long-term living environment and daily schedules. For example, stroke patients and their caregivers may have acquired a better appreciation of the implications of their cognitive and communicative symptoms.…”

“…There remains a need to develop more activity and participation tools given the disputed 1-to-1 association among the ICF dimensions 355,473 ; that is, clinicians cannot use body structure and function tests to reliably predict patients' activity and participation status. 337,354,472 In particular, more activity and participation tests suitable for stroke survivors with language deficits are needed.…”

Análise do discurso de indivíduos afásicos fluentes e com leve dificuldade de compreensão oral

“…Therefore, analyze the different oral genres of individuals with aphasia offers greater potential to determine the skills and deficits in aphasics in conditions closer to the natural than such tests 6 . Some standardized test batteries have discursive tasks.…”