Main concepts for two picture description tasks: An addition to.

BACKGROUND

Proposition analysis of the discourse of persons with aphasia has a long history, yielding important advancements in our understanding of communication impairments in this population. Recently, discourse measures have been considered primary outcome measures, and multiple calls have been made for improved psychometric properties of discourse measures.

AIMS

To advance the use of discourse analysis in persons with aphasia by providing Main Concept Analysis checklists and descriptive statistics for healthy control performance on the analysis for the Cat in the Tree and Refused Umbrella narrative tasks utilized in the AphasiaBank database protocol.

METHODS & PROCEDURES: Ninety-two control transcripts, stratified into four age groups (20-39 years; 40-59; 60-79; 80+), were downloaded from the AphasiaBank database. Relevant concepts were identified, and those spoken by at least one-third of the control sample were considered to be a main concept. A multi-level coding system was used to determine the accuracy and completeness of the main concepts produced by control speakers.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Main concept checklists for two discourse tasks are provided. Descriptive statistics are reported and examined to assist readers with evaluation of the normative data.

CONCLUSIONS

These checklists provide clinicians and researchers with a tool to reliably assess the discourse of persons with aphasia. They also help address the gap in available psychometric data with which to compare persons with aphasia to healthy controls.