Abstract
ABSTRACT Purpose: to perform the transcultural adaptation and translation of the ABaCo battery for the Portuguese population and check its psychometric properties. Methods: initially, the translation and retroversion of ABaCo was done. A total of 40 participants without pathology were recruited. Two equivalent Forms (Form A and Form B) were used, consisting of linguistic, extralinguistic, paralinguistic and context scales. The instrument was also applied to 12 people who were in the chronic phase after severe or moderate traumatic brain injury (TBI). For statistical analysis the following tests were used: Mann-Whitney U test, Student t test for independent samples, Pearson's correlation (the value is considered significant when p ≤ 0.05) and Cronbach's alpha (the value is considered minimally acceptable when superior to 0.65). Results: TBIs’ participants showed lower results as compared to those without neurological pathology. The evidence was discriminatory for the population with TBI, although, on some scales, it was not, due to the ceiling effect. Differences were not found between the two Forms. The results also showed the existence of correlation of schooling and age with some of the components of ABaCo, as verified in the original version. No differences in gender-conditioned responses were found. The battery showed good metrical qualities with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90 (Form A) and 0.71 (Form B), for the total sample. Conclusion: ABaCo has proved to be an appropriate instrument for assessing communication in the Portuguese adult population. Despite the limitations, this instrument is expected to be useful in the evaluation of the communication, following TBI.
Highlights
IntroductionPragmatic competence results from the interaction of several communicative skills activated in everyday contexts to convey a specific meaning[7,8]
The ability to communicate effectively is essential in our daily lives
Communication, and pragmatics, has not received the necessary attention in the rehabilitation programmes, which can be explained by the lack of assessment instruments[28]
Summary
Pragmatic competence results from the interaction of several communicative skills activated in everyday contexts to convey a specific meaning[7,8] This competence is generally impaired in subjects who have suffered TBI, i.e., they frequently present changes in the use of language in different contexts of everyday life, even in the long term[9]. Assessing communication after brain injury is essential for the rehabilitation process[1,16,17,18,19], but this need is not always acknowledged[20,21] This situation can be explained mainly by two reasons: difficulties in evaluating the different communicative abilities and the fact that TBI subjects speak better than communicate, without apparent linguistic impairment, which draw away the professionals’ attention, even though their communication is often inappropriate and ineffective
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
