Social validation as a measure of improvement after aphasia treatment: Its usefulness and influencing factors

Background: Standardised language tests are the most commonly used assessment tool of aphasia by Speech-Language Pathologists (Katz et al., 2000 Katz, R. C., Hallowell, B., Code, C., Armstrong, E., Roberts, P.Pound, C. 2000. A multinational comparison of aphasia management practices. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 35: 303–314. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), yet they are limited in their ability to provide information regarding a person's ability to communicate in daily life. Social validation is a less commonly used type of assessment, but one that may provide additional information regarding language and communication abilities, based on the perceptions of persons not directly involved in the treatment. Despite its potential, there remain questions regarding its optimal use.

Aims: The goals of this study were to examine the usefulness of social validation in measuring communicative change after aphasia treatment, and to investigate the potential influence of rater characteristics on raters' perceptions.

Methods & Procedures: Narratives were elicited before and after naming treatment from 11 participants with aphasia: 7 participants were treated, 4 of whom improved and 3 of whom did not; 4 participants did not receive treatment. Three groups of 10 raters (speech-language pathologists, older and younger naïve adults) evaluated the narratives, and their ratings of the pre- and post-treatment narratives were analysed for perceived improvement.

Outcomes & Results: Results indicated that all three groups of raters observed improvement in the two treated groups of participants with aphasia, but not in the untreated group of participants with aphasia.

Conclusions: Raters' perceptions of narratives (i.e., social validation) provide a useful measure of change after aphasia treatment, which can easily be used to supplement objective language measures. Additionally, factors such as the rater's experience with aphasia or life experience do not appear to have an important influence on rater perceptions.