Development and Validation of Language and Communication Assessment Scales

The goal of speech therapy for individuals with aphasia is to improve their communication effectiveness, enabling them to communicate in daily life. Traditional aphasia assessments focus on linguistic processes (e.g., naming, comprehension, dictation), which are categorized under impairment in the ICF framework, while everyday communication skills fall under activity and participation. However, there is a lack of consensus and appropriate tools for assessing everyday communication in aphasic patients, which are crucial for setting personalized treatment goals. The study suggests an interactive, multimodal model of language assessment, emphasizing the role of gestures in communication. It calls for the development of scales and tests that assess communication in a broader context, including factors like motivation, attention, awareness, and alternative communication strategies, as well as questionnaires evaluating both the individual's and caregiver's perceptions of communicative effectiveness and daily life participation. Moreover, an assessment tool of communicative gestures is needed.

Inclusion criteria

Patient admitted to the hospital for an intensive neurorehabilitation cycle or attending as an outpatient Diagnosis of language and communication disorders following a stroke in the right or left hemisphere Age > 18 years Ability to provide informed consent Native speaker of Italian (L1 Italian)

Exclusion criteria

• Unstable clinical conditions that may interfere with participation in the study (e.g., active symptomatic infections, stupor, need for oxygen therapy)