[Speech therapy assessment: field study on psychometric properties, practicability, acceptance and process quality]

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Clinical Assessment Tools
• Rehabilitation Science

Background:

• Standardized, generic, and ICF-oriented assessment tools for adult speech therapy are lacking in German-speaking countries.
• Existing tests often cover only specific sub-areas of communication, speech, and swallowing disorders.
• The Speech Therapy Assessment (STA) was developed between 1995 and 2002 to address these gaps.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the internal consistency, responsiveness, discriminative validity, practicability, acceptance, and process quality of the STA.
• To evaluate the STA's performance under routine conditions for speech and language therapists.
• To assess the STA's utility in diagnosing and managing adult clients with communication, speech, and swallowing disorders.

Main Methods:

• 17 speech and language therapists applied the STA to 260 adult clients over 7 months.
• Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha.
• Responsiveness was assessed using effect sizes (standardized response means), and discriminative validity using ROC values.
• Therapist feedback on practicability and benefit was collected via questionnaires and evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively.

Main Results:

• The STA demonstrated high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha: 0.79–0.95) and discriminative validity (ROC values: 0.84–0.98).
• Responsiveness was moderate (standardized response means: 0.46–0.78).
• Therapists rated the STA's overall benefit as satisfactory (average score 2.6/5), with specific ratings for practicability (2.6), acceptance (2.8), diagnostics (2.8), goal setting (3.5), and interdisciplinary communication (2.7).

Conclusions:

• The STA meets essential quality criteria of classical test theory.
• Speech and language therapists found the STA to be a satisfactory assessment tool.
• Therapists identified specific areas for improvement to enhance the STA's practical implementation.