Feasibility and Reliability of the Adapted Kagan Scales for Rating Conversations for People With Acquired Brain...

Area of Science:

• Communication Sciences
• Clinical Psychology
• Neurorehabilitation

Background:

• Assessing communication skills is crucial for individuals with acquired brain injury (ABI) and their partners.
• Existing conversation rating scales require evaluation for clinical utility and reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the clinical feasibility and reliability of two conversation rating scales: the Adapted Measure of Participation in Conversation (MPC) and the Adapted Measure of Support in Conversation (MSC).

Main Methods:

• Speech and language therapy students (n=14) and clinicians (n=2) were trained on the Adapted MPC and MSC scales.
• Raters scored 23 videotaped conversations (5 or 10 min) across four phases with varying training and sample lengths.
• Feasibility (time, ease of use) and interrater reliability (intraclass correlations) were assessed.

Main Results:

• Rating a 5-min conversation sample took 20-30 min, and a 10-min sample took 30-45 min; ease of use was rated highly.
• Reliability was better for 5-min samples (ICC=.52-.73) than 10-min samples (ICC=.33-.68).
• Moderate reliability was found for both MPC (students ICC=.69; clinicians ICC=.55) and MSC (students ICC=.73; clinicians ICC=.58), with higher reliability for students.

Conclusions:

• Rating 5-minute conversation samples within 30 minutes is clinically feasible.
• Shorter conversation samples (5 min) provide more reliable assessment of communication quality compared to longer samples (10 min).
• Findings inform future assessment strategies for conversational skills in ABI populations.