American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology

Purpose: The Kentucky Aphasia Test (KAT) is an objective measure of language functioning for persons with aphasia. This article describes materials, administration, and scoring of the KAT; presents the rationale for development of test items; reports information from a pilot study; and discusses the role of the KAT in aphasia assessment.

Method: The KAT has 3 parallel test batteries, KAT-1, KAT-2, and KAT-3. Each battery contains the same orientation test and 6 subtests, each with 10 items, assessing expressive and receptive language functions. Subtests for KAT-1, KAT-2, and KAT-3 systematically increase in difficulty so that it is possible to assess individuals with severe, moderate, and mild aphasia, respectively. The KAT was administered to 38 participants with aphasia and 31 non-brain-damaged (NBD) participants.

Results: Results with the KAT clearly differentiated the language performance of individuals with and without aphasia. NBD participants made few errors, and overall scores on the test for individuals with aphasia were rarely within 1 SD of the NBD group. Performance of the participants with aphasia administered KAT-1, KAT-2, and KAT-3 suggested that the 3 versions of the test represent a hierarchy of difficulty.

Veteran to recount war story that earned France's 'merci'

On Sunday, Nov. 4, just before heading to Washington for the ceremony, Bernie Rader will recount the harrowing adventure that led to his receiving the honor. He and his wife will show a documentary, For One English Officer, and answer questions about his experience at the Jewish Community Center of Central New Jersey at 10:30 a.m. The Raders talk is being cosponsored by Temple Emanu'El of Westfield.

The Raders have given their presentation on the POW exchange about 60 times at JCCs, libraries, and other venues throughout the region, working together since a stroke nine years ago left him with aphasia, a language impairment that can make it difficult to speak.

Aphasia

Yesterday, I saw P. She is in her seventies. She saw another physician, who had diagnosed her with Alzheimer's. Actually, she doesn't have that. She has progressive aphasia. Aphasia is when you lose language. She can't find the words that she wants to use. Alzheimer's patients also develop aphasia. But they develop other thinking issues. They have "global" cognitive decline. So this is different. Words that we need get put into a filing cabinet. Then, when we need them we go and retrieve them. P has lost the Next...

Games for Word Retrieval Therapy

Matching games, such as the one on this site, are fun, simple ways of learning the identification of words and pictures. But they can also have a much higher purpose - - helping those with word retrieval difficulties. Speech and language pathologists often use matching games in their therapy to help patients with specific word retrieval disorders - - particularly aphasia.

Aphasia is a word-retrieval disorder characterized by the inability to think of the right word to say or write, or an inability to name common objects. The disorder is often a side affect of a stroke, or other brain injury and is a result of damage sustained to one of the areas of the brain responsible for language. Aphasia can also include difficulty understanding spoken words, speaking aloud, reading, or writing. Next...................