Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist H
As the only speech-language-hearing therapist at my facility and with relatively little clinical experience, I had been feeling uncertain about the assessment and treatment of patients on a daily basis. Another therapist in the rehabilitation department asked me if there was a simple way to assess aphasia in people using our day-care services, so I looked into it and found the STAD online.
I felt that it could be used to assess patients in a short amount of time while minimizing the burden on them. If I may put it this way, I felt that it was a useful method for getting a general sense of the patient’s condition. Although I think the details may need to be examined further through more comprehensive assessment, I believe the STAD could provide useful guidance for assessment and treatment.
Aomori
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist Y
When I started working as a speech-language-hearing therapist at my facility, the only screening tool we had was one I had created myself when I was a new therapist several years ago. Moreover, many of our patients were unable to complete even that screening, so it was difficult to make use of it and we had never gotten around to revising it. As more junior therapists joined our team, I became increasingly concerned that we could not continue this way.
One of my junior colleagues brought in an STAD form and said, “We learned about this in class.” I then looked it up online. Unfortunately, because many of our patients are older adults, writing tasks were often difficult to administer due to refusal or inability to write. However, many of our junior therapists had already used the STAD and were familiar with it. I also thought that if it is being used at many other facilities, it could make information sharing between facilities smoother. I can also see how we could use it together with the assessment form I have been developing.
Kumamoto
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist T
When conducting screening, I had been looking for something that could provide a useful reference point, such as cutoff scores, to make it easier to explain the results. The STAD covers overall language function.
Hiroshima
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist H
I wanted to know whether there was a standardized procedure for administering the assessment. Until then, I had often been the most junior therapist at my workplace or had worked alone. When I eventually became responsible for supervising several junior therapists, I wanted to know whether there was an established and standardized method. The STAD is convenient and easy to administer as a screening tool.
Osaka
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist A
The assessments we had been using did not have a manual, and I felt that the examiner’s bias could sometimes affect the scoring. Because the STAD has a standardized manual, I believe it offers greater reliability and validity.
Aomori
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist N
We had been trying to develop various assessment tools ourselves to see whether aphasia, dysarthria, and higher-order cognitive dysfunction could be differentiated to some extent through a single screening assessment. At the same time, we were looking for something that would be easy for new therapists to understand and use. The STAD can be administered in a short amount of time, is easy to use, and produces results that are easy to understand.
Hyogo
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist S
We accept student trainees, and for screening we had been having the students create and use their own screening tools. However, there were considerable variations between these tools, and I found it difficult to provide them with clear assessment criteria.
I therefore searched online for something that could serve as a reference standard for screening, including for our trainees, and came across the STAD. What ultimately convinced me was that the STAD allows screening to be performed easily while covering a broad range of areas, including aphasia, dysarthria, and other higher-order cognitive dysfunction. I felt that there was no other screening tool quite like it.
Because it requires little preparation, the assessment can be administered easily. Most importantly, the screening results make it easier to determine which additional assessments are needed. I therefore believe that it could improve efficiency in our day-to-day work.
Gifu
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist I
One of my colleagues, an occupational therapist, had been looking for a way to assess aphasia that could be used in settings such as home visits. I was interested in what a simple assessment would look like and whether an appropriate assessment could be performed by professionals outside the speech-language-hearing field.
As a speech-language-hearing therapist, I initially thought that we conduct assessments in order to plan rehabilitation, and that it would be preferable to predict the presence or absence of aphasia based on the lesion and conduct a more comprehensive assessment such as the SLTA from the outset. However, I felt that the STAD could provide useful information when determining whether aphasia may be present.
It also includes items asking about hearing and visual impairments, which made me feel that it was designed with other healthcare professionals in mind as well.
Fukushima
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist N
After returning to working with adults following a long break, I was having difficulty because I was not sure what new assessment and treatment scales were available. Once I am able to better manage my workload, I would definitely like to make use of the STAD. Thank you very much, and I look forward to continuing to learn from you.
Gifu
Occupational Therapist K
I am an occupational therapist, but there is no speech-language-hearing therapist at my workplace, so I had no one to consult with. I could not find a well-organized screening test for language disorders.
When I administered the STAD, the final scores were good across all items. When explaining the patient’s language-related status to the caseworker, I supplemented the results with additional comments. It seemed that the main issue in this case was not a language disorder itself, but rather a broader communication difficulty. The patient also had a psychiatric condition, so psychological and mental factors may have influenced the results.
Ibaraki
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist M
I was wondering what kind of assessment would be necessary for all of our staff to understand the language abilities of users at our day-care service, and whether there was an assessment that could be administered in a short amount of time.
Since our day-care service had only recently opened, we had relatively few users requiring language therapy, so we have only administered the STAD a small number of times. Nevertheless, the STAD can be completed quickly and is easy for other staff members to understand, which has been very helpful. It gives us confidence that we are prepared when someone who needs an assessment comes to our facility in the future. Thank you very much.
I am still relatively inexperienced, so I look forward to your continued guidance and support.
Aichi
Occupational Therapist Y
There are only a small number of speech-language-hearing therapists at our facility, and I wanted to be able to conduct at least a simple assessment of patients presenting with aphasia or dysarthria without increasing the workload of the speech-language-hearing therapists. That is why I made the inquiry.
I learned about the STAD at a lecture on higher-order cognitive dysfunction organized by the Ehime Association of Occupational Therapists. I liked the fact that it was easy to administer and could be completed in a short amount of time. The explanatory materials for professionals from other disciplines that were included with the STAD were also extremely helpful.
So far, I have administered it to five patients, and other staff members have also given positive feedback, such as “It is easy to use” and “It is useful for understanding the patient’s symptoms.” We would like to continue using the STAD at our facility. Thank you, and I look forward to working with you in the future.
Okinawa
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist R
I was looking for an assessment that could be administered by professionals other than speech-language-hearing therapists in settings such as day-care facilities. I learned about the STAD from a colleague at work.
Most patients with aphasia had difficulty with the dictation task, but there were differences in the types of errors they made. Taking these differences into account made the assessment useful.
When I had a nurse at our day-care facility administer the STAD, she found it “interesting” and began using it actively. It seemed to change the way she looked at and understood language disorders.
Aichi
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist M
I was looking for a way to conduct a simple language assessment within the limited time available during home-visit rehabilitation. The STAD covers a broad range of areas at a basic screening level, making it very convenient for initial assessments when time is limited.
Hyogo
Speech-Language-Hearing Therapist S
As part of a practical exercise at school, I was given an assignment to create an original screening assessment, and I was looking for something that I could use as a reference. I felt that relying solely on the knowledge I had learned at school could result in a biased assessment or leave important areas uncovered.
The STAD is easy to use and understand, can be completed on a single sheet of paper, and covers all the areas I felt were necessary, so I wanted to use it as a reference. After seeing the STAD, I thought it was an excellent tool and immediately contacted you.
Although it is compact, it contains a substantial amount of information, which was another reason I decided to make an inquiry. I am still a student and have not used it myself yet, but if I have an opportunity to use it during my clinical training, I would be happy to do so and share my impressions with you.
Tokyo