Clinician Perspectives on the Assessment of Short-Term Memory in Aphasia.
Wendy Greenspan, Jessica Obermeyer, Carole A Tucker and 3 others
PMID 34024984WHAT IT FOUND
Speech-language pathologists said they rarely test short-term memory in aphasia unless a problem appears.
They valued tests tied to daily communication. Time pressure and language-heavy tests made assessment hard.
Key findings
01Clinicians reported that they usually do not assess short-term memory in aphasia unless an observed problem prompts it.
02They valued assessments that connect to functional communication, but said time pressure affects administration, scoring, and documentation.
03They reported a lack of short-term memory tests appropriate for people with aphasia. They said this made it hard to tell whether language or memory caused breakdown.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study reports clinicians' views, not patient outcomes, so it cannot show whether any assessment or approach improves communication. Only 34 of 44 participants completed the background survey, so the authors' claim that respondents represented the whole group is uncertain. Four of five groups were at sites receiving subaward funding from a grant supporting research on verbal short-term memory, which may have influenced what participants said. Focus group discussion can be dominated by confident speakers, and a researcher who supports the language-based memory model was present, which may have shaped responses. Findings come from Philadelphia and Seattle settings, so they may not apply to all clinical services.
Declared interests
No potential conflict of interest was reported, but four of five focus groups were held at sites receiving subaward funding from a grant supporting research on verbal short-term memory in aphasia.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that verbal short-term memory testing improves aphasia treatment or communication outcomes. The study reports what clinicians said about assessment barriers, not patient results.