Episode 8: Cognitive & Language Evaluations on Inpatient Rehab Unit with Lauren Ball, MS, CCC-SLP
Here are some of the assessments that Lauren uses and her thoughts on each (and mine too).
SCCAN - Scales of Cognitive and Communicative Ability for Neuro-Rehabilitation - good for mid to low level brain injury
SCATBI - Scales of Cognitive Ability for TBI - um… apparently we have no commentary for this one on the episode. But I will note that it will take longer than 30-45 minutes to administer the whole thing, but you can administer certain subtests, and that’s helpful.
CLQT - Cognitive Linguistic Quick Test - a very “generous” test - it seems everyone tests WFL. Leigh Ann doesn’t find it useful to the outpatient population with higher functioning skills than what Lauren sees on the inpatient rehab unit.
Wechsler Memory Scales - Lauren takes pieces of it, she doesn’t administer the whole thing b/c it’s too long and sometimes uses it as a therapy task for the patient to implement memory strategies.
FAVRES - Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies - Lauren likes that the assessment really is FUNCTIONAL. It assesses thought flexibility, prediction, and other functional skills. It’s more real life and pretty complex, so Lauren uses it for her higher functioning patients.
RIPA & RIPA-G - Ross Information Processing Assessment (Geriatric version too) - Leigh Ann thinks it’s “quick and dirty” and feels like she’s giving a survey. Lauren knows that we can miss a lot with these patients when the assessment format is simply “question/answer.”
BADS - Behavioral Assessment for Dysexecutive Syndrome. Lauren likes it for her higher level patients. She says “it’s kind of a fun one” and “really interesting.” Leigh Ann is really interested in this test now, and needs to figure out how she’ll get her facility to order it.
ALFA - Assessment of Language-Related Functional Assessment - Lauren gives it a la carte - feels like it’s outdated but likes to use the counting money subtest. We agree that it needs to be updated b/c it is a good test on principle, but has outdated tasks.
Language related assessments:
WAB - R, Western Aphasia Battery-Revised. Comprehensive aphasia assessment, Lauren feels it’s appropriate for low and high level aphasia patients. The entire test must be completed to obtain the scores for your evaluation report.
ADP - Aphasia Diagnostic Profiles - pretty good for higher level language
RCBA - Reading Comprehension Battery for aphasia
Lauren’s favorite thing about working on inpatient rehab is the ability to build relationships with the patients. She loves the chance to build personal relationships with the patients and their families - “it’s one of the most rewarding things.” “I learn so much.”
Hey Lauren, what have you learned from working in inpatient rehab?
“Whether or not every session is this beautiful, perfect picture of speech therapy, you have a chance to be a small light in their day, or this period of their life and I just think that’s super cool”
Music in podcast: “freedom” by Twisterium