ERIC Number: EJ1472099
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-May
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1368-2822
EISSN: EISSN-1460-6984
Available Date: 2025-05-05
Development and Real-Time Clinical Application of New Transcription-Less Discourse Assessment Approaches for Arabic Speakers with Aphasia
International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, v60 n3 e70043 2025
Background: Assessing spoken discourse during aphasia clinical examination is crucial for diagnostic and rehabilitation purposes. Recent approaches have been developed to quantify content word fluency (CWF) and informativeness of spoken discourse without the need to perform time-consuming transcription and coding. However, the accuracy of these approaches has not been examined in real-time clinical settings, and they have been developed and validated mainly in English and thus cannot be applied to other languages. Aims: For the first time: (i) to create and validate CWF checklists and main concept (MC) lists in Arabic; (ii) to examine the application of these two approaches in real-time clinical settings with people with aphasia (PWA) while they are performing the task; and (iii) to investigate whether these two approaches can differentiate discourse responses produced by PWA versus neurotypical adults. Methods: The Arabic Discourse Assessment Tool (ADAT) was used to collect discourse responses on three tasks (composite picture description, storytelling narrative, and procedural discourse) from 70 neurotypical control adults and 50 PWA matched to the control group in age and education. The discourse samples were transcribed, and analysed. For each task, CWF checklists and MC lists were developed and validated using discourse reponses from the control group. Afterwards, the application of these two approaches in real-time clinical settings was examined with the aphasia groups. The psychometric properties of CWF and MC approches were examined. Results: Novel Arabic CWF checklists and MC lists were successfully developed, validated, and applied clinically for three discourse tasks. The analysis showed significant high accuracy between CWF scores obtained in real-time clinical settings and those identified using the traditional approach of transcribing and analysing discourse samples across all three discourse tasks (ICC = 0.88 to 0.94). Furthermore, significant excellent reliability (ICC = 0.917 to 0.994) were found for the three tasks in both groups. Most of the MCs were produced accurately and completely by neurotypical control adults, whereas they were mostly absent in PWA. CWF checklists and MC lists showed significant high validity in distinguishing spoken discourse produced by PWA from those produced by neurotypical adults at p < 0.001. Conclusions: This is the first study to develop and validate novel Arabic CWF checklists and MC lists. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that the CWF approach and main concept analysis (MCA) can be applied clinically in real-time with PWA. These transcription-less approaches can be used as part of the routine aphasia clinical examination to provide quick but accurate assessments of CWF (microlinguistics) and informativeness (macrolinguistics) of spoken discourse in PWA. These approaches also provide a significant resource for Arabic speakers with aphasia, that will lead to accurate aphasia assessments and better clinical management.
Descriptors: Arabic, Aphasia, Language Fluency, Check Lists, Oral Language, Phonetic Transcription, Coding, Accuracy, Discourse Analysis, Speech Evaluation, Test Validity, Test Construction
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Language and Communication Sciences, School of Health and Psychological Sciences, City, University of London, London, UK; 2Communication and Swallowing Disorders Department, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia