The validity and reliability study of the word level auditory comprehension test (SİAT)

The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Word Level Auditory Comprehension Test (SİAT). SİAT consists of three subtests (Category, Noun, and Verb) and 50 test items. This study included 35 aphasic and 77 healthy participants over the age of 18 who spoke Turkish. Participants were divided into three education (1-8 years; 9-12 years and 13+ years) and three age (18-44, 45-59, 60+) groups. For validity, construct and criterion validity analyzes were carried out; Internal consistency, stability and equivalence analyzes were conducted for reliability. The effects of aphasia type (fluent and non-fluent) and demographic variables (age, education, gender) on the SİAT scores of aphasic and healthy participants were examined. Aphasia type, age and gender affected the SİAT scores of the aphasic participants, while the education level was found to be effective on the performances of both aphasic and healthy participants. The SİAT scores of the participants with non-fluent aphasia were higher in each subtest than the participants with fluent aphasia. However, individuals with both non-fluent and fluent aphasia got the highest score on Noun Comprehension and the lowest score on Verb Comprehension subtests. In aphasic group, men scored higher than women; and younger participants scored higher than older ones. Both in aphasic and healthy participants, those with 13+ years of education had the highest and those with 9-12 years of education had the lowest score. The cut-off point of SİAT was determined as 34,5. It has been concluded that SİAT is a valid and reliable test for the evaluation of auditory comprehension skills of Turkish-speaking individuals with aphasia. Keywords: Aphasia, Auditory Comprehension, Word Level Auditory Comprehension Test, Validity, Reliability