Friday, May 23, 2025
5/23/2025
Development and Evaluation of a Clinical Assessment Tool of TBI-Related Social Communication - TITLE: Development and Evaluation of a Clinical Assessment Tool of TBI-Related Social Communication Adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are at risk for communication impairments that negatively affect return to work, family, and community roles. TBI-related social communication impairments (TBI-SCI) are characterized by ineffective, disorganized, and inappropriate verbal communication and reduced capacity to understand others’ non-literal and non-verbal messages. Despite the importance of social communication to daily life, TBI-SCI are under-diagnosed and under-treated because speech-language pathologists (SLPs) lack clinical assessment tools that are quick, reliable, valid, and inform person-centered treatment planning. The objective of the proposed K23 career development award is to address this gap by developing, refining, and evaluating patient- and caregiver-reported TBI-SCI assessment tools that meet the needs of SLPs and adults with TBI. Patient-reported outcome measures facilitate personalized rehabilitation and rigorously assess health-related outcomes and treatment effects. Guided by person-centered rehabilitation theory and existing assessment tools, we will conduct a prospective qualitative study to identify social communication skills and mediating factors that stakeholders (adults with TBI, family members, and SLPs) perceive as important to TBI- SCI rehabilitation. Findings will inform the content and structure of parallel patient- and caregiver-reported clinical assessment tools. We will refine the tools using iterative cognitive interviewing to ensure the tools capture the most important factors to TBI-SCI rehabilitation (i.e., are content valid) and are easy to comprehend. Preliminary psychometric testing will be conducted on tool responses from a diverse sample of 100 adults with TBI and 150 caregivers to evaluate tool validity and reliability. This work supports NIDCD’s strategic priority to develop and test improved diagnostic tools that will provide communication treatment targets and will inform a subsequent R01 application to conduct large-scale psychometric testing and to test the feasibility of clinical implementation. Completion of the proposed research and career development activities will equip Dr. Byom with in-depth knowledge and comprehensive training in clinical assessment tool development, including qualitative research methodology, quantitative tool evaluation, and principles of implementation science. With this training, Dr. Byom will be uniquely poised to translate her training in social communication theory, TBI-SCI, and clinical TBI communication rehabilitation to development and evaluation of clinically feasible SLP practices to support adults with TBI.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).