Functional assessment of communication: Merging public policy with clinical views

Cultural adaptation and psychometric testing of The Scenario Test UK for people with aphasia

“…Aphasia can have a profound effect on functional communication, that is, the ability to communicate effectively in everyday activities and situations (Armstrong et al 2013). It reflects a person's ability to understand or to convey a message independently of the chosen modality in order to communicate successfully (Frattali 1992). The ability to communicate in daily life settings is highly important and affects a person with aphasia's (PWA) ability to maintain relationships (Northcott et al 2016a), social participation (Northcott et al 2016b) and health-related quality of life (Fotiadou et al 2014, Hilari et al 2012.…”

Recovery from Aphasia and Neglect

“…For example, MIT was recently assessed by the American Academy of Neurology 'as promising', with a quality of evidence class III [76]. The commonest methodological problems in studies evaluating the efficacy of speech therapy include insufficient sample size, case mix with both acute and chronic patients, high patient attrition, lack of an adequate control group, no blind assessment of outcome and lack of a pragmatic or ecologically valid functional measure [87] as the main outcome measure. Three recent reviews [75,88,89] conclude that speech-language therapy is efficacious, but these reviews include single cases, case series and uncontrolled studies.…”

Psychosocial Aspects of Aphasia: Whose Perspectives?

“…Some measures, such as the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scales [Hoen et al, 1997] and the Psychological Well-Being Index [Lyon et al, 1997], have been criticised on account of their limited psychometric power, 268 Folia Phoniatr Logop 2001;53:266-288 Parr and a strong case has been made for the use and development of psychometrically sound measures of functional outcome [Frattali, 1992]. Indeed, it has been argued that any intervention (including those designed to help and support the carers of people with aphasia) can only be evaluated using rigorous experimental methods [Servaes et al, 1999;Pring, 1999].…”