Aphasia Battery Tests

Question 0

Porch Index of Communicative Abilities (PICA)

Answer 0

• to become qualified to administer the PICA, you must complete a 40 hour workshop
• designed to measure severity of language disorders with a maximum amount if reliability
• uses a 16-point scale that clearly indicates a response’s degree of correctness
• has 18 subtests that assess verbal production, auditory comprehension, reading, writing, and gestures
• one of the fastest tests to administer, takes about about to administer
• a total of 180 test items
• used primarily in aphasia research

Question 1

Minnesota Test for Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia

Answer 1

~Can take 3-6 hours to administer, the average time it takes to administer the test is 3 hours
~the most comprehensive of the aphasia battery tests
~It’s 47 suggests are divided into five sections
1. Auditory
2. Visual and reading
3. Speech and language
4. Visuomotor and writing
5. Numerical Reasoning
~Is not designed to diagnose different language disorders, rather it is oriented toward finding a pts strengths and weaknesses in all language modalities, to help treatment planning.

Question 2

Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination - 3rd Edition

Answer 2

*There are five subsections
1. Conversational Speech
2. Auditory comprehension
3. Oral expression
4. Reading
5. Writing
(Plus a section on apraxia)
* It is a norm-referenced, standardized test with norms for both aphasic subjects (n=85) and normal subjects (n=15)
* Total administer tie is about 2+ hours
This addition includes a short version (40-60mins)
-the Boston Naming Test is the confrontation naming portion of the exam
-This edition includes supplementary non-language tests, such as for R and L orientation and acalculia
-Provides a profile of pt scores that can help in the classification of major aphasic syndromes (this is the main reason you would use the naming test)

Question 3

Western Aphasia Battery

Answer 3

Similar in context and purpose to the BDAE
The first four sections examine oral language abilities
The final four sections examine reading, writing, apraxia, and arithmetic
This test will give a summary score, which is useful documenting progress in treatment. The most commonly used summary score is the aphasia quotient score (AQ)
AQ Score gives you a nice number on a pts severity. It can help you to quantify the pts severity. Uses real objects and is shorter than the Boston

Question 4

Western continued..

Answer 4

The AQ Is the summary score for the oral language abilities section of the test (these are the four oral language subtests: spontaneous speech, auditory comprehension, repetition, and naming).

The highest AQ score is 100, meaning either normal language performance or only the mildest of impairment

Question 5

Boston Naming Test

Modality Specific Test

Answer 5

Assess name retrieval

• contains 60 items of progressive difficulty; has a short version
• ceiling of 8 consecutive errors
• most useful for people with mild naming problems
• usually as a criterion-referenced test

Question 6

Pyramids and Palm Trees Test

Modality Specific Test

Answer 6

Is a nonverbal test of semantic memory

• contains 52 items
• used mostly as a criterion-referenced test
• takes about 15 mins to administer

Question 7

Token Test

Modality Specific Test

Answer 7

• Designed to detect both subtle and gross auditory comprehension
• Contains different shapes and color of tokens. Only materials used are the tokens
• There are numerous versions of this test, Revised Token Test is one
• The Token Test is very useful in that it assessed auditory comprehension only. The subjects had no contextual information to help increase understanding.

Question 8

Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices

Modality Specific Test

Answer 8

• A nonverbal visuospatial test that sometimes is used to document decreases in aphasic subjects’ general intelligence
• Studies using this test suggest that severe aphasia pulls down general intelligence along with pts language abilities