Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia- 2nd Edition

Last Updated

January 08, 2024

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May 9–10
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Offered by Academy, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab

Purpose

Measures reading impairment in adults with aphasia.

Link to Instrument

Instrument Details

Acronym RCBA-2

Assessment Type

Observer

Administration Mode

Paper & Pencil

Cost

Not Free

Actual Cost

$255.00

Diagnosis/Conditions

Brain Injury Recovery
Stroke Recovery

Non-Specific Patient Population

Brain Injury

Allows for entirely nonverbal responses.
Covers a wide range of difficulty, from single words through complex paragraphs.
Numerous aspects of reading are assessed, including:
1) Word order
2) Factual vs. inferential reading
3) Synonym recognition
The 20 subtests cover a diverse range of activities including:
1) Single-word comprehension for visual confusions
2) Auditory confusions, and semantic confusions
3) Functional reading
4) Synonyms
5) Sentence comprehension
6) Short paragraph comprehension
7) Paragraphs
8) Morpho-syntactic reading with lexical controls

Testing kit must be purchased. The complete Kit includes the examiner's manual, a stimulus picture book, supplementary picture books, 25 profile/summary forms, and storage box.

30 minutes

Required Training

No Training

Adult

18 - 64

years

ICF Domain

Body Function

Measurement Domain

Cognition
Sensory

Considerations

No validity data could be found for the RCBA-2
Only limited validity data is available for the RCBA-1

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Normative Data

Non-brain-damaged adults: (Flanagan & Jackson, 1997)

Mean (SD) score for a non-aphasic population 97.32 (2.72). Scores ranged from 86 to 100

Test/Retest Reliability

Aphasic patients: (van Demark et al, 1982; n = 26; mean age = 44.2 years; multiple diagnosis sample; average time since onset = 35 months)

Excellent test-retest reliability: r = 0.94

Criterion Validity (Predictive/Concurrent)

Aphasic patients: (van Demark et al, 1982; multiple diagnosis)

Adequate correlation with Gates Silent Reading Test (r = 0.87)
Adequate correlation with Porch Index of Communicative Abilities (r = 0.80)

Standard Error of Measurement (SEM)

Healthy Normals: (calculated from Flanagan & Jackson, 1997; n = 31; mean age = 63.74 (7.4) years; mean education = 14.06 (1.75) years)

SEM= 3.4 points
Percent Change = 1.7%

Bibliography

Flanagan, J. L. and Jackson, S. T. (1997). "Test-retest reliability of three aphasia tests: performance of non-brain-damaged older adults." J Commun Disord 30: 33-42. Find it on PubMed

Nicholas, L. E., MacLennan, D. L., et al. (1986). "Validity of multiple-sentence reading comprehension tests for aphasic adults." J Speech Hear Disord 51: 82-87. Find it on PubMed

Van Demark, A. A., Lemmer, E. C., et al. (1982). "Measurement of reading comprehension in aphasia with the RCBA." J Speech Hear Disord 47: 288-291. Find it on PubMed