AN INVESTIGATION OF THE SENSITIVITY OF THE REPORTER'S TEST TO EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE DISTURBANCES

• Main Author: WENER, DEENA LOUISE
• Language: ENG
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 1983
• Subjects: Speech therapy
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI8317499

The study was designed to investigate the sensitivity of the Reporter's Test to expressive language disturbances. One hundred and forty-four normal adults and 24 left brain-injured aphasic adults were given a test battery consisting of: the Reporter's Test (DeRenzi & Ferrari, 1978), the Token Test - part V (DeRenzi & Vignolo, 1962), the Word Fluency Measure (Wertz, Keith, & Custer, 1971), an Analysis of Connected Speech Samples (Yorkston & Beukelman, 1980), a Ten-Item Sentence Repetition Task, and the Imitator's Test. A significant difference was found between normal and asphasic adults' total scores and test times on the Reporter's Test. In addition, neither age nor educational level played a significant part in the performances of the normal subjects on the Reporter's Test. Interjudge reliability, test-retest reliability, and concurrent validity were established for the Reporter's Test. The Reporter's Test was found to be as sensitive as the Word Fluency Measure and the Token Test - part V to expressive language disturbances. The Reporter's Test was found to be a more sensitive measure than the Analysis of Connected Speech Sample. Hit rates and indices of determination were determined for all test measures. In addition, several test battery proposals were suggested.