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The Animated Sentence Production Test (AnimSPT) for Aphasia: Pilot Study of Test Development and Preliminary Validation
Poster Session C, Saturday, September 13, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm, Field House
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Zeinab khoshhal mollasaraei1, Dirk Den Ouden1, William Matchin1; 1university of south carolina
Sentence production deficits are a key challenge for individuals with aphasia. Since communication occurs primarily in sentences, effective treatment depends on understanding breakdowns in sentence production. These impairments can arise during message formation, lexical retrieval, syntactic encoding, or articulatory planning. However, existing assessments have limitations. Spontaneous speech tasks, such as story retelling, allow individuals to avoid complex structures and do not clarify the source of observed errors. Constrained tasks, like single-picture descriptions, often rely on metalinguistic prompts (e.g., arrows), adding cognitive demands that can obscure true linguistic deficits. This study aims to develop and evaluate the validity and reliability of a novel sentence production test for aphasia. The test progresses systematically from object naming to action naming, then to active sentence production (with verb tense inflection), and finally to passive sentence production—all using a consistent set of lexical items. It is designed to efficiently identify specific areas of breakdown, minimize reliance on extralinguistic prompts, and be quick to administer and score. Animated scenes are used to enhance ecological validity and provide a naturalistic context for assessing verb retrieval and sentence formulation. The AnimSPT consists of four subtasks: object naming, action naming, active sentence production (past, present, and future tenses), and passive sentence production. Animated stimuli were used to elicit structured responses with minimal prompting. In the pilot phase, 23 healthy adults named 30 verbs (15 transitive, 15 intransitive) to identify those with the highest naming agreement for test inclusion. The full AnimSPT was then administered to 9 healthy individuals and 5 individuals with aphasia. The stimuli successfully elicited target sentence structures in most cases, particularly among healthy participants, who required only a brief practice phase. Healthy individuals consistently outperformed participants with aphasia across all tasks. Within the aphasia group, the greatest impairments were observed in producing past tense and passive constructions. Performance varied across individuals, with those showing milder impairments producing more accurate and complete responses. The pilot confirmed the feasibility and diagnostic potential of the test. Next steps include refining stimuli and administering the AnimSPT to a larger sample of both individuals with aphasia and healthy controls.
Topic Areas: Development of Resources, Software, Educational Materials, etc., Syntax and Combinatorial Semantics