Assessment of higher level cognitive-communication functions in adolescents with ABI: Standardization of the student version of the functional assessment of verbal reasoning and executive strategies (S-FAVRES).

BRAIN injury diagnosis; CLINICS; COGNITION in adolescence; COMMUNICATIVE competence; STATISTICAL correlation; TEST validity; EXPERIMENTAL design; HOSPITALS; INTERVIEWING; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL tests; RESEARCH methodology; MEDICAL cooperation; PROBABILITY theory; PROBLEM solving; QUESTIONNAIRES; REHABILITATION centers; RESEARCH; RESEARCH evaluation; SCALE analysis (Psychology); SCHOOLS; SELF-management (Psychology); SPEECH evaluation; STATISTICAL hypothesis testing; STATISTICS; STUDENTS; LOGISTIC regression analysis; PILOT projects; DATA analysis; STATISTICAL reliability; TASK performance; PREDICTIVE validity; INTER-observer reliability; MULTITRAIT multimethod techniques; SEVERITY of illness index; RECEIVER operating characteristic curves; RESEARCH methodology evaluation; EXECUTIVE function; FUNCTIONAL assessment; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; GLASGOW Coma Scale; INTRACLASS correlation; ADOLESCENCE

CANADA; UNITED States

Background: Childhood acquired brain injuries can disrupt communication functions needed for success in school, work and social interaction. Cognitive-communication difficulties may not be apparent until adolescence, when academic, environmental and social-emotional demands increase. Objective: The Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies for Students (S-FAVRES) is a new activity-level measure of cognitive-communication skills in complex, contextual and integrative tasks that simulate real world communication challenges. It is hypothesized that S-FAVRES performance would differentiate adolescents with and without acquired brain injury (ABI) on scores for Accuracy, Rationale, Reasoning Subskills and Time. Methods: S-FAVRES was administered to 182 typically-developing (TD) and 57 adolescents with mild-to-severe ABI aged 12–19. Group differences, internal consistency, sensitivity, specificity, reliability and contributing factors to performance (age, gender, brain injury) were examined statistically. Results: Those with ABI attained statistically lower Accuracy, Rationale and Reasoning sub-skills scores than their TD peers. Time scores were not significantly different. Performance trends were consistent across tasks, administrations, gender and age groups. Inter-rater reliability for scoring was acceptable. Conclusion: The S-FAVRES provides a reliable, functional and quantifiable measure of subtle cognitive-communication difficulties in adolescents that can assist speech-language pathologists in planning treatment and integration to school and real world communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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