Abstract
Measurement of communication ability at the discourse level holds promise for predicting
how well persons with stable (e.g., stroke-induced), or progressive aphasia navigate
everyday communicative interactions. However, barriers to the clinical utilization
of discourse measures have persisted. Recent advancements in the standardization of
elicitation protocols and the existence of large databases for development of normative
references have begun to address some of these barriers. Still, time remains a consistently
reported barrier by clinicians. Non-transcription based discourse measurement would
reduce the time required for discourse analysis, making clinical utilization a reality.
The purpose of this article is to present evidence regarding discourse measures (main
concept analysis, core lexicon, and derived efficiency scores) that are well suited
to non-transcription based analysis. Combined with previous research, our results
suggest that these measures are sensitive to changes following stroke or neurodegenerative
disease. Given the evidence, further research specifically assessing the reliability
of these measures in clinical implementation is warranted.
Keywords
transcription - discourse - aphasia - clinical utility
