The Scenario Test Research Project version 1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

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

• IRAS ID

  133610

• Contact name

  Katerina Hilari

• Contact email

  k.hilari@city.ac.uk

• Research summary

  Aphasia is a language disorder which affects about a third of stroke survivors, with 15% affected in the long­term. Aphasia impairs all aspects of language comprehension and production. People with aphasia can have serious difficulty communicating in day­to­day life, with many becoming socially isolated. When aphasia is severe, recovery of speech may not be a realistic option. Here the person will need to compensate via non­verbal communication. Non­verbal communication might include the use of gesture, drawing or writing, or the use of technological communicative aids.
  The Scenario Test, developed in the Netherlands (van der Meulen et al. 2010), can assess such communication and hence guide intervention. The test has many advantages over current English language measures. It assesses communication within realistic day­to­day settings. It evaluates a person’s multimodal communicative effectiveness, i.e. their ability to get a message across using verbal and non-verbal means like pointing, gesture, facial expression, while many tests only focus on verbal ability. This is important because the Dutch Scenario Test has revealed a significant range of communicative ability for people who are equally nonverbal (van der Meulen et al. 2010). Finally, it offers a systematic measurement of communicative effectiveness, rather than a subjective rating, which is the case in most English ‘functional communication’ assessments such as the ASHA­FACS (Frattali et al. 1995).
  This project is nested in a larger study evaluating the psychometric properties of the English version of the Scenario Test. For the larger study, participants are recruited from the community to evaluate validity and reliability. For this project, the test’s sensitivity to change will be evaluated with 20 people who have had a stroke more recently, and are still receiving treatment within a rehabilitation unit. This is because the majority of recovery post­stroke occurs in the first three months.

• REC name

  London - Stanmore Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/LO/1659

• Date of REC Opinion

  17 Sep 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion