Psychometric properties of the apraxia of speech rating scale Thai version

Abstract

Background: Thai speech-language pathologists lack appropriate tools to describe apraxia of speech (AOS) characteristics in Thai patients. Objectives: This study aimed to translate and adapt the most recent version of the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale (ASRS) 3.3, the ASRS 3.3, into a Thai version and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Thai version (ASRS-Thai). Materials and methods: The original ASRS 3.3 has been translated into Thai using the backward-translation approach. The original developer was also included in the translation process to improve the translation accuracy. The resulting tool, ASRS-Thai, was administered to 28 adults with neurological speech or language disorders, along with another AOS test available in Thai, Apraxia Test for Thai Adults (ATTA). The recordings were rated independently by 5 experienced speech-language pathologists at different hospitals. The clinical assessment of patients’ performance on the ATTA was used as the reference standard to measure the sensitivity and specificity of ASRS-Thai for AOS diagnosis. Concurrent validity and reliability measures were also examined. Reliability was examined by evaluating intra-rater and inter-rater reliability. Results: Moderate-to-strong negative correlations were found between the ATTA and the ASRS-Thai (-0.575 to-0.900). Additionally, the sensitivity and specificity of the ASRS-Thai at a cut-off score of 16 were 100% and 86.7%, respectively. Reliability was computed by measuring the intraclass correlation (ICC) values. The intra-rater ICCs were 0.96, 0.968, and 0.976, and the inter-rater ICC was 0.927 for the total score. Conclusion: The ASRS-Thai is a reliable, valid instrument to describe the presence and severity of AOS characteristics in clinical settings and research. Additional data collection by testing a larger sample size with diverse severities, including cases of pure AOS, is warranted in future studies.