Background

Purpose of the present study was the preliminary standardization and validation of an adult aphasia assessment battery for the Greek population. The Minnesota test for the differential diagnosis of aphasia (MTDDA) was originally created by Hildred Schuell in 1946 and was later revised in 1972 by Jenkins, Jimenes-Pabon, Shaw and Sefer (1975).

Materials and methods

The battery is used as diagnostic scale for the differential diagnosis of adult aphasia and measures the language skills in the aphasic population. The battery was administered to 30 aphasic participants and 50 non-aphasic participants, recruited from Greek health settings, aged 19–83 years.

Results

Statistical analysis of the data revealed that the results obtained are generally consistent with the results reported in other countries. No statistically significant differences were found between the results obtained for the Greek population and the results reported in the USA population in all five diagnostic categories (auditory disturbance, visual and reading disturbance, speech and language disturbance, visuomotor and writing disturbance, disturbance of numerical relations).

Discussion

The battery appears to be sensitive to adult aphasic symptomatology in the Greek population and presents satisfactory criterion and content validity as the aphasic participants assessed demonstrated clear patterns of deficit. The usefulness of the battery for the Greek population in clinical and research settings is also discussed.