Self-Rating Abilities of Communicatin of People with Aphasia

Many people with aphasia (PWA) want therapy to be relevant to their unique needs and desires and focused on skills they can apply to their everyday lives (Tomkins, Siyambalapitiya & Worrall, 2013; Worrall, et al., 2011). It is important for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to give value to what PWA describe as meaningful life change and integrate it into therapy (Kagan, et al., 2008). Using self-reported outcome measures can help SLPs see how PWA feel about their communication abilities to see if their therapy has met their needs. In order to work toward common goals, it\u27s essential to understand how PWA and SLPs rate the communication of PWA. This study investigated how PWA rate their communication abilities based on reports from PWA themselves and their SLPs by assessing them using the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB), a language impairment measure, and the Assessment for Living with Aphasia (ALA), an aphasia-friendly patient-reported measure. Twenty-three subjects, ages 37 to 83, with severity of aphasia ranging from mild to very severe participated in this study. Our results indicated that PWA and SLPs understand PWAs\u27 communication differently. The way PWA viewed their receptive language according to the ALA did not correlate to the way SLPs viewed their receptive language according to the WAB. Additionally, the way PWA viewed their speech and writing according to the ALA also did not correlate to the way SLPs viewed their speech and writing according to the WAB. Thus, SLPs should consider incorporating patient-reported measures into assessment in order to better meet PWAs\u27 needs in therapy