Non-standardized assessment of individuals with TBI

Question 1

Why might a SLP choose to supplement standardized with nonstandardized assessment?

Answer 1

Individuals with TBI often demonstrate limitations in everyday activities despite good performance on standardized cognitive and language tests.

Question 2

What problem can arise if you use an aphasia test to evaluate communication skills of someone with TBI (2 points)?

Answer 2

These tests tend to overestimate communicative performance of the person with the TBI because they are not subtle enough to pick up on the challenges of a person with TBI.

Most aphasia batteries assess language function at the single word or sentence level, at which most individuals with TBI have little difficulty.

Question 3

Which measurse appeared most useful for identifying conversational impairments?

Answer 3

Measures of content and topic management

Question 4

Measures of conversational discourse appear better able to discriminate TBI and non–
brain-injured groups than other types of discourse (ie. monologic discourse). Why is that?

Answer 4

1. Because of the interactive nature of conversation
2. Also, social factors appear to make conversational discourse more sensitive to the cognitive-
   communicative impairments of individuals with TBI.

Question 5

State 3 important components of the evaluation of individuals with TBI.

Answer 5

Non-standardized, functional and context sensitive assessment.