APHASIA MIDTERM QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | APHASIA MIDTERM STUDY
GUIDE 2026/2027
Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) - ANS ✔✔-Takes 1-4 hours to administer, short
form 30-45 min
-based on Boston Classification System
-Norm-referenced, classify based on score
-Severity, communication ability
-Assesses fluency, auditory comprehension, naming, oral reading, repetition, paraphasia,
automatic speech, reading comprehension, writing, music, spatial computations
-Advantages:
assesses a variety of areas, many special tests if needed
-Disadvantages: must use judgment in determining patient classification, fails to classify some
patients, no specific treatment implications provided
Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) - ANS ✔✔11-question measure of mental status that
tests five areas of cognitive function:
orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall, and language; only takes 5-10 min to
administer
Minnesota Test of Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia (MTDDA) - ANS ✔✔-Takes 2-6 hours to
administer
-Classify by language behavior
-Assesses: auditory disturbances, visual and reading disturbances, speech and language
disturbances, speech and language disturbances, visuomotor and writing disturbances, and
disturbances of numerical relations and arithmetic processes
-Advantages- gives focus of treatment for auditory stimulation, and has many easy subtests
Disadvantages- longer than 2 hours to administer, no qualitative score, only quantitative score
to make judgments.
, Revised Token Test - ANS ✔✔-Test of auditory comprehension/ auditory memory and/ or
attention, processing
-Tokens are different colors, sizes, and shapes
-DON'T USE THIS FOR LOW-LEVEL PEOPLE
-Test arranged in increasing level of difficulty
-10 subtests, 10 commands each
-Applicable to those with lexical or syntactic comprehension problems
-Minimal set of stimuli
-Systematically alter length and complexity
-Early, simple subtests useful with Wernicke's
-Disadvantage- uses PICA scoring
Porch Index Communicative Ability (PICA) - ANS ✔✔Functions!
-Takes ~1 hour to administer
-Special scoring (PICA scoring) requires intensive training to administer and score
-18 subtests assess language by modalities
-Norm referenced with other persons with aphasia
-Subtests include writing, verbal, graphic, pantomime, gestural, reading, visual, copy, auditory,
and overall score
-Advantages- sensitive to changes over time using scoring system, useful to direct treatment
planning, standardized scoring/qualitative aspects, predict recovery by analyzing variability
across subtests, useful for malingering
-Disadvantages- must be trained to use the complicated scoring system, no conversational
speech sample, mean scores obscure variability across subtests, not a comprehensive test-
grammar, morphology, and phonology are not covered.
GUIDE 2026/2027
Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination (BDAE) - ANS ✔✔-Takes 1-4 hours to administer, short
form 30-45 min
-based on Boston Classification System
-Norm-referenced, classify based on score
-Severity, communication ability
-Assesses fluency, auditory comprehension, naming, oral reading, repetition, paraphasia,
automatic speech, reading comprehension, writing, music, spatial computations
-Advantages:
assesses a variety of areas, many special tests if needed
-Disadvantages: must use judgment in determining patient classification, fails to classify some
patients, no specific treatment implications provided
Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) - ANS ✔✔11-question measure of mental status that
tests five areas of cognitive function:
orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall, and language; only takes 5-10 min to
administer
Minnesota Test of Differential Diagnosis of Aphasia (MTDDA) - ANS ✔✔-Takes 2-6 hours to
administer
-Classify by language behavior
-Assesses: auditory disturbances, visual and reading disturbances, speech and language
disturbances, speech and language disturbances, visuomotor and writing disturbances, and
disturbances of numerical relations and arithmetic processes
-Advantages- gives focus of treatment for auditory stimulation, and has many easy subtests
Disadvantages- longer than 2 hours to administer, no qualitative score, only quantitative score
to make judgments.
, Revised Token Test - ANS ✔✔-Test of auditory comprehension/ auditory memory and/ or
attention, processing
-Tokens are different colors, sizes, and shapes
-DON'T USE THIS FOR LOW-LEVEL PEOPLE
-Test arranged in increasing level of difficulty
-10 subtests, 10 commands each
-Applicable to those with lexical or syntactic comprehension problems
-Minimal set of stimuli
-Systematically alter length and complexity
-Early, simple subtests useful with Wernicke's
-Disadvantage- uses PICA scoring
Porch Index Communicative Ability (PICA) - ANS ✔✔Functions!
-Takes ~1 hour to administer
-Special scoring (PICA scoring) requires intensive training to administer and score
-18 subtests assess language by modalities
-Norm referenced with other persons with aphasia
-Subtests include writing, verbal, graphic, pantomime, gestural, reading, visual, copy, auditory,
and overall score
-Advantages- sensitive to changes over time using scoring system, useful to direct treatment
planning, standardized scoring/qualitative aspects, predict recovery by analyzing variability
across subtests, useful for malingering
-Disadvantages- must be trained to use the complicated scoring system, no conversational
speech sample, mean scores obscure variability across subtests, not a comprehensive test-
grammar, morphology, and phonology are not covered.
