Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE)

The BDI is a level B measuring instrument which means someone with a Master’s degree in counseling can administer this instrument. The is a good instrument to measure depression in people ages 20 t0 80 old and it is available in many languages. The time needed to administer this questionnaire is between 3 and 10 minutes. It can also be administered verbally by a trained administrator.

Formal standardized tests or screens that are used for children whose mother tongue is not English are often not very helpful for the following reasons

Clearly, the main utility of this examination is to place patients into the appropriate diagnostic categories. The strengths of this examination is its shortness of length while still retaining validity and its inclusion of valid scales that measure qualitative forms of speech output. An important strength of the BDAE is the fact that its figures in which the scale is rated on, have been standardized based on many conclusive administrations. (Borod, Goodglass, Kaplan, 1980). Another strength of the BDAE is that it has been praised for having little bias in regard to racial tendencies, except in the case of three subtests. In a study that set out to locate racial bias in regard to three major tests of aphasia, results revealed that the BDAE and the MTDDA had no statistically different results in regard to age, gender, or race. (Molrine & Pierce,

Some strengths of this achievement assessment include that not every subtest will be administered depending on the age of the student and the variety of areas that this assessment measures. This assessment measures oral expression and listening comprehension that could help a child qualify for special education services. The math subtests provide valuable data that can be used for objectives for the child’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). Also, the results from this achievement test can be used to determine if a child has a Specific Learning Disability and in which areas he or she would qualify in for services. A weakness of this test is that the administrator must know the scoring procedures for each subtest. With the Pseudoword decoding subtest, the child is timed and the administrator will record the student’s responses exactly using correct punctuation or phonetic symbols and this can lead to inaccuracies in scoring. The WIAT-III has multiple areas to be tested to give us an accurate reading of the child’s

Furthermore, the DIBELS Next is comprised of 7 subtests which include: First Sound Fluency (FSF), Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF), Nonsense Word Fluency

This assessment is an interview based assessment that assesses how the client cognitive deficits affect their daily functioning (Boop, 2014).

Disability Rating Scale-This assessment provides quantitative information about the client 's recovery from TBI from coma to community (Powell, 2014). This test has eight items in four categories: arousal and awareness; cognitive ability to handle

As per Reitan and Wolfson (1993) raw test scores must be interpreted by adhering to the following method: the WAIS-Information, Comprehension, Similarities and Vocabulary score must be weighed against pre-morbid intellectual competence. Poor scores are more receptive to biological condition and it might indicate brain damage. Next the Halstead Impairment Index is calculated based on the CT, Trail-Making Test B, and Localisation score of the TPT. In case these scores show significant decrease compared to Wechsler result, or the obtained ratio of 0.5 or greater suggests brain damage which resulted in neuropsychological impairment. This is followed by examining the WAIS Verbal versus Performance, bilateral disparity on the FTT and TPT, dysphasia, constructional dyspraxia and deficiency on the Sensory Perceptual Examination which lead to finding the location and orientation of the cerebral damage. Closing step is integrating all the input and interpreting the results concerning the neurological irregularity, predicting the progression of the injury and diagnosing the neurological condition (Reitan & Wolfson, 1993). Various index numbers serve to detect improper brain function. Russsell et al (1970) formulated Average Impairment Rating based on 12 weighted average subtest scores. The General Neuropsychological Deficit Scale (Reitan &

Nearly one million individuals within the United States experience aphasia resulting from a stroke. The website for the American Heart Association states that strokes are the third leading cause of death in the United States. They are often referred to as a cerebrovascular accident (CVA). This occurs when the blood flow to the brain has been either stopped or interrupted. The deprivation of blood flow and oxygen to the brain results in a stroke. Around 41.2 percent of individuals who suffered from a stroke will have aphasia (Guyomard et al., 2009). Manasco (2014) stated that aphasia is a deficit in language abilities resulting from the brain. It is broken down into, two categories fluent and non-fluent. Individuals with aphasia typically suffer from anomia. This is a condition where word retrieval (anomia) is difficult. “Most unimpaired individuals do not need to put forth any effort to express themselves verbally. However,

Expressive aphasia, also known as Broca’s aphasia, impairs the way in which a person’s language is produced. Although this type of aphasia impairs a person’s ability to speak, they are still able to use the other aspects of language, such as comprehending when someone is speaking to them. Broca’s aphasia may cause long pauses between words, this is called dysprosody, and leaving out important words or endings of words, which is known as agrammatism. This type of aphasia occurs when there is traumatic damage to what is referred to as the Broca’s area of the brain. Treatment of Broca’s aphasia is done by a Speech Language Pathologist, and is different for each person depending on their specific needs. Receptive aphasia, known as Wernicke’s aphasia, impairs one’s ability to understand themselves and others. The way that they speak is barely comprehensible; this is known as logorrhea. Patients with Wernicke’s aphasia may have something called anosagnosia, which makes them believe that what they are saying is being understood. This type of aphasia makes it very difficult for SLP’s to treat because of the anosognosia. Wernicke’s aphasia is caused by damage to what is known as the Wernicke’s area of the

A neurological exam will assess motor and sensory skills and the functioning of one or more cranial nerves (National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, 2012). Initially, health care providers can rank a person’s functioning based on how long that person has been conscious, the length of their memory loss and their score on the Glasgow Coma Scale. The Glasgow Coma Scale is able to measure the individual’s functioning by looking at their ability to speak, open their eyes and ability to move. The RAVLT has been shown to be insensitive to psychiatric illness such as depression and anxiety. However, there is some evidence that psychological distress (including depression, post-traumatic stress, and other anxiety disorders) has some effect on RAVLT performance (Spreen &

It is estimated that there are 62,000 strokes in Canada each year and 405,000 of the Canadian population have been living with the effects of a stroke themselves or have a close family member/friend who had suffered a stroke (Heart & Stroke Foundation, 2016). According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation (2016) 16 out of every 100 patients who has suffered a stroke without a past history of dementia, will more than likely develop dementia after their first or recurrent stroke. Working in the Integrated Stroke Unit, patients hospitalized for stroke who also have dementia required quite a lot of complex care, which is understandable, as according to the Canadian Institute for Heath Information, stroke patients with dementia are are at a much greater risk of dying than those without dementia, with a mortality rate of 20% compared to 13% for patient who only suffered a stroke (Heart and Stroke Foundation, 2016).

Aphasia is a language disorder that results from damage to portions of the brain that are responsible for language. For most people, these are parts of the left side (hemisphere) of the brain. Aphasia usually occurs suddenly, often as the result of a stroke or head injury, but it may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor. The disorder impairs the expression and understanding of language as well as reading and writing. “Aphasia may co-occur with speech disorders such as dysarthria or apraxia of speech, which also result from brain damage”. (Sarno 23)

Another serious type of aphasia is Broca’s Aphasia. Broca’s Aphasia differs from Wernicke’s aphasia because individuals that suffer from this disorder can easily comprehend because their auditory comprehension is unimpaired, but they are unable to control their articulators and motor planning in order to produce their own speech. Broca’s Aphasia is also known as “nonfluent” or

I chose the Fixed Battery Approach as the assessment tool to discuss. It dates back, and it has been considered to be a comprehensive approach that is a broad based and emphasizes on standardization and reliability. Most common fixed approach assessment used is the Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Test Battery.