Short form of the Bilingual Aphasia Test in Russian: Psychometric data of persons with aphasia

Abstract

Background: There is currently a lack of standardised aphasia batteries available in the Russian language. The psychometric properties of a short form of the Russian version of the Bilingual Aphasia Test (BAT) (Paradis, 1987) were examined. The BAT (Paradis & Zeiber, 1987) is one of the few published tests in Russian.

Aims: The primary aims were: (1) to describe the psychometric properties of a modified short form of the BAT in Russian by analysing the data collected on a large sample of Russian‐speaking adults with aphasia; (2) to identify needs for further modification, validation, and standardisation; and (3) to provide a preliminary evidence base for clinicians and investigators using the test.

Methods & Procedures: The modified short form of the Russian BAT was administered to 83 patients with mild to severe aphasia. All were native speakers of Russian.

Outcomes & Results: The test was effective in discriminating patients according to level of severity of language impairment. Most of the tasks constituting the short form of the test had strong internal consistency. These results support the utility of each assessed component of the BAT in quantifying language deficits in speakers of Russian with aphasia. However, problems with the internal consistency and the validity of some items were identified.

Conclusions: The study provides preliminary data on the psychometric properties of an aphasia test in Russian. Needs for modification of the test, suggestions for further development of the test, and recommendations for further study of its psychometric properties are discussed.

Keywords:

• Neurogenic communication disorders
• Aphasia
• Language assessment
• Test development
• Standardised testing.

Notes

This work was supported in part by grant number DC00153‐01A1 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, an Ohio University Graduate Fellowship in the School of Hearing, Speech and Language Sciences, and College of Health and Human Services Student Research and Scholarly Activity Award. Dr Karen Evans‐Romaine provided excellent assistance in certifying Russian translations for the informed consent process. The authors thank Victor Shklovsky and the staff of the Moscow Federal Center of Speech Pathology and Neurorehabilitation for their continuous support of the project, especially Marina Emeliyanova, for assistance with patient recruitment and data collection.

1. The BAT is currently out of print. One can obtain copies of the test by writing directly to Dr Paradis.

2. The study of bilingual aphasia is not a focus of this article. Literature is available on the topic of bilingual aphasia in general (cf. Roberts, 2001) and on the BAT in particular (cf. Paradis, 1987).

3. The authors of this article do not intend to co‐author or publish any modified version of the BAT.