Development and preliminary psychometric analysis of a quick screening form for referrals of individuals with neurogenic communication disorders to speechlanguage pathologists by laypersons

Neurogenic communication disorders, including aphasia (receptive and/or expressive language disorders), dysarthria and apraxia of speech (AOS) (motor speech disorders), are consequences of damages to the nervous system [1]. Kong [2] estimated that about 80,000 individuals were diagnosed with aphasia after stroke at a given time in Hong Kong. There was no information on the incidence of motor speech disorders. As cerebrovascular diseases have close associations with motor speech disorders [3,4], the prevalence of motor speech disorders should not be underestimated given the number of new cases with stroke every year in Hong Kong, i.e., 25,000 [5]. It is important to provide speech and language pathology services for individuals Purpose: The study aimed at developing and determining the preliminary reliability and validity of a new screening form for use by laypersons to refer individuals with neurogenic communication disorders to speech-language pathologists.