Author: Brett McCardel, MS, CCC-SLP
When assessing for agraphia at the single word-level, what are you looking for? ๐ต๏ธโโ๏ธ โฃ
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Written language is complicated, and there are lots of factors that go into understanding the difference between why a client may write COW for โhorseโ or spell SIGHKIK for โpsychicโ ๐ ๐ฎ โฃ
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Here are some linguistic variables youโll want to pay close attention to when assessing agraphia at the single word-level:โฃ
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-๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ด๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฒ๐ด๐๐น๐ฎ๐ฟ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ป๐ด: if a word follows conventional spelling and sound rules in English, it is considered Regularly-spelled (e.g., cat); words that do not follow conventional letter and sound rules are considered Irregularly-spelled (e.g., yacht)โฃ
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-๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐๐ ๐๐ผ๐ ๐๐ฟ๐ฒ๐พ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ฐ๐: A clientโs ability to spell common words (high frequency) and less common words (low frequency) will give insight into the Orthographic Output Lexiconโฃ
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-๐๐บ๐ฎ๐ด๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ถ๐น๐ถ๐๐: how concrete or abstract a word is (essentially, how easy it is to develop a mental picture of the word); imageability effects imply impairment to the Semantic Systemโฃ
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-๐ฆ๐๐น๐น๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ด๐๐ต: if shorter words are more correctly produced than longer words, this may imply vulnerabilities in the Graphemic Bufferโฃ
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โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
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With so many variables to consider, check out the following assessments that help control for these linguistic features:โฃ
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-Arizona Battery for Reading and Spellingโฃ
-Psycholinguistic Assessment of Language Processing in Aphasiaโฃ
-John Hopkins University Dyslexia and Dysgraphia Batteriesโฃ
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Once you administer one of these assessments, youโll then be able to determine what agraphia classification your client has based on what language processing components are impaired โ๐ผ โฃ
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Interested in learning more about the language processing components used to make an agraphia diagnosis? Check out our ๐ก๐๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฌ๐๐๐ข๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ ๐ช๐ฅ๐๐ง๐๐ก๐ resource (link in bio)! ๐ง โฃ
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Once you understand this model, an agraphia classification can be made. Be on the lookout for an Agraphia Classifications resource to come soon! ๐จ๐จโฃ
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#aphasia #aphasiatherapy #neurorehab #medslp #writing #agraphia #dysgraphia