Measuring communicative participation: a review of self-report instruments in speech-language pathology.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the adequacy of self-report instruments in speech-language pathology for measuring a construct called communicative participation.


METHODS
Six instruments were evaluated relative to (a) the construct measured, (b) the relevance of individual items to communicative participation, and (c) their psychometric properties.


RESULTS
No instrument exclusively measured communicative participation. Twenty-six percent (n = 34) of all items (N = 132) across the reviewed instruments were consistent with communicative participation. The majority (76%) of the 34 items were associated with general communication, while the remaining 24% of the items were associated with communication at work, during leisure, or for establishing relationships. Instruments varied relative to psychometric properties.


CONCLUSIONS
No existing self-report instruments in speech-language pathology were found to be solely dedicated to measuring communicative participation. Developing an instrument for measuring communicative participation is essential for meeting the requirements of our scope of practice.
Eadie
Tanya L
TL
Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105, USA. teadie@u.washington.edu
Yorkston
Kathryn M
KM
Klasner
Estelle R
ER
Dudgeon
Brian J
BJ
Deitz
Jean C
JC
Baylor
Carolyn R
CR
Miller
Robert M
RM
Amtmann
Dagmar
D
D003142:Communication; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome