Adaptation and normative data for the Comprehensive Aphasia Test in Catalan (CAT-CAT)

Area of Science:

• Neurolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• Speech and Language Pathology

Background:

• Aphasia assessment tools are limited for non-English languages, especially minority languages like Catalan.
• Cultural and psycholinguistic factors are crucial for accurate aphasia diagnosis in diverse populations.
• Normative data is essential for distinguishing pathological from non-pathological language performance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Catalan adaptation of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT-CAT).
• To provide normative data for Catalan-dominant speakers without language disorders.
• To examine sociodemographic influences on language skills in multilingual minority language speakers.

Main Methods:

• Development of the Catalan adaptation of the Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT-CAT).
• Collection of normative data from 110 Catalan-dominant speakers.
• Analysis of sociodemographic factors (education, language mixing) affecting language skills.

Main Results:

• The CAT-CAT is the first aphasia assessment tool developed for Catalan, considering cultural and psycholinguistic nuances.
• Normative data establishes baseline performance and cut-off scores for Catalan speakers.
• Writing subtests showed lower reliability compared to oral subtests, influenced by formal instruction in Catalan, more than education level.
• Spanish language-mixing effects were observed in specific production subtests.

Conclusions:

• The CAT-CAT is a valuable tool for clinical and research purposes in aphasiology for Catalan speakers.
• Language-specific adaptations are necessary for accurate aphasia diagnosis.
• Formal instruction in a minority language significantly impacts writing assessment reliability.