Psycholinguistic Considerations for Adapting the Cantonese Version of Comprehensive Aphasia Test (Cant-CAT): A Feasibility Study

Abstract

Purpose: The Comprehensive Aphasia Test (CAT) is an extensive and standardized battery to evaluate linguistic and cognitive impairments as well as psychosocial deficits among people with aphasia (PWA). Currently, the CAT has not been adapted into any Asian languages. We aimed to conduct a feasibility study on developing a Cantonese version of CAT (i.e., Cant-CAT), summarize the adaptation process, and elucidate preliminary measurement properties of the test in speakers with and without aphasia. Method: The CAT was translated into Chinese and modified with careful control of the psycholinguistic variables specific to Cantonese. The preliminary version of the Cant-CAT was tested among eight healthy middle-age native Cantonese speakers in Hong Kong and six chronic PWA. The PWA were also administered the Cantonese version of Western Aphasia Battery (CAB) to determine its agreement with the Cant-CAT. Results: The mildly impaired PWA subgroup performed significantly better than the moderate group in most of the subtests in the Cant-CAT and CAB. The PWA with a higher mean score in the CAB subtests (i.e., Comprehension, Naming, Repetition, Reading, and Writing) also scored higher in the corresponding sections of Cant-CAT. Conclusion: This study confirmed that the Cant-CAT appears to function as designed and provided the impetus for a large-scale extension to examine test validity and reliability of the battery, and to establish its norms for clinical diagnostics and interpretation.