Tapping into the continuum of linguistic performance: Implications for the assessment of deficits in individuals with aphasia

The fundamental goal of every speech and language clinician is to provide services that will enhance the functional communicative abilities of the patients they treat. The cornerstone of developing a successful intervention program is careful patient assessment. Historically, clinicians have relied on traditional standardized language and neuropsychological assessment tools to determine performance baselines from which to plan the treatment course. Although informative in many ways, the batteries that are used can also be limiting. Most often they force clinicians and researchers into forming categorical diagnostic groups, which may result in the loss of critical information essential for the planning of therapeutic interventions. The purpose of the current paper is to review some empirical evidence that suggests we should strongly consider redefining classic syndromes, redesigning standard assessment tools, and utilizing new technologies to map out the symptom space in individuals with brain injury.