COGNITIVE LINGUISTIC

ASSESSMENT PROTOCOL FOR

ADULTS –KANNADA CLAP-K
BRIEF OVERVIEW:

• Aruna K.G and K.S

Developed by
Prema

Year • 2001

Age range
(subjects)
• 40-70 years
Test helps in

• Clinical screening
1.
• To differentiate senile versus senescent
changes
2.
• Early identification of communication
problems like dementias, primary progressive
3. aphasia, CVA aphasia in the elderly population
TEST DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
 The list of cognitive process provided by best(1999) are
reviewed and those cognitive Process which are most
employed in linguistic tasks are
eliminated Attention
• And core cognitive abilities that Perception
support the language were selected.
Discrimination
These include:
Memory
Reasoning
Problem solving
organisation
 On the basis of a presumed similarity in strategies employed
cognitive processes for language functioning, they were again
confined to four domains. These include,

1. Attention,
discrimination and
perception
2. Memory
3.Reasoning and problem
solving
4.organisation
 INSTRUCTION FOR ADMINISTRATION

1. Seat the subject comfortably in front of you

2. Place the test material on the table facing the

subject

3. Give one trial for all tasks and then proceed.

DOMAIN-1 ATTENTION ,DISCRIMINATION AND
PERCEPTION

Attention, discrimination and perception

VISUAL Letter cancellation

Contingent letter cancellation
Word cancellation
AUDITORY Sound count
Letter pair discrimination
Word pair discrimination
Months backward naming
Visual subtest:
1.Letter cancellation
Instruction: From the below list of letters the person has to identify every ‘l’and has to
underline the letters .

Scoring: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10 ( note down the time taken to complete the task.)
2.Contingent letter cancellation:

Instruction: From the below list of letters the person has to identify every ‘l’ which is near to
the letter ‘k’and has to underline the letter.

Scoring: : score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10(note down the time taken to complete the task)
3.Word cancellation:

Instruction: From the below list of words the person has to identify every ‘kittale’ word and has to
underline the same.

Scoring: : score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10 (note down the time taken to complete the task)
Auditory subtest:

1.Sound count:
Instruction: clinician will read the letters as given in the list and patient has to
count how many times the sound ‘b’ appeared in the list.

Scoring: : score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10 -1 for each extra count beyond 10
2.Letter pair discrimination

Instruction: clinician will say a pair of letters and person has to tell
whether it is same or different.

b p
t t
l l
c j
d k
Scoring: : score 1 for correct discrimination
score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:5
3.Word pair discrimination:

Instruction: clinician will say a pair of words and person has to tell whether it is
same or different.

kuri kuuri
bale male
niinu naavu
hoovu hoovu
cappali cakkali

Scoring: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10
4.Months backward naming: This require the attention and recall
processes.

Instruction: ask the person to name the months in a year in the

backward order i.e, from December to January

 Scoring:1 mark for every month named

Total score:10 (dec and nov is not included as they are used to
help the subject to begin)
 DOMAIN-2 MEMORY
Memory
Episodic memory Orientation and recent memory
questions

Working memory Digit forward

Digit backward

Semantic memory Coordinate naming

Superordinate naming
Word naming fluency
Generative naming
Sentence repetition
Carry out commands
 1. EPISODIC MEMORY
Orientation and recent memory questions
This includes questions that tests orientation of self with respect to place, self and time and also few
questions for general knowledge.

Instruction: ask questions to the person and he/she has to answer it

Scoring: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10
2.WORKING MEMORY:
Digit forward

Instruction: clinician will say a 5 set of numbers in the increasing complexity .The person
has to repeat in the same order.

Scoring: 1 point for every correctly

repeated sequence.
No points if all the numbers repeated but in wrong order.
Total score:5
 DIGIT BACKWARD
Instruction: clinician will say a 5 set of numbers in the increasing complexity.The person
has to repeat in the reverse order.

Scoring: 1 point for every correctly repeated sequence.

No points if all the numbers repeated but in wrong order.
Total score:5
3. Semantic memory:
a. Coordinate naming: This includes a noun-class.

Instruction: person has to name the objects that using for

writing.

 Scoring: 1 point for each item named. No point for items like
‘rubber’, ‘ duster’ etc
 Total score:10
B. SUPERORDINATE NAMING

Complimentary to co-ordinate naming.

Instruction: person will be provided with a list of items that belonging to
particular class. then clinician will name a category the person has to show
the items belonging to that category

Scoring: : score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score: 5
c. Word naming fluency
Instruction: clinician will say 5 letters and person has to say 5 words
starting with each letter. This task is to evaluate recall .

Scoring: 1 point for 5 words on every letter. if the person unable to say 5
words,no scores. ( also note down the time taken to complete task)
Total score:5
d. Generative naming
 Instruction: clinician will say 5 questions in the form of description
and person has to say the target word.

 Scoring: 1 point for every correct answer

Total: -/5
e. Sentence repetition
Instruction: clinician will say 4 phrase/sentences and person has to repeat
the phrase/sentence.

 Scoring: 1 point for every morpheme correctly repeated

Total score:10
f.Carry out commands
Instruction: clinician will say 4 commands at various levels of complexity, and
person has to follow these commands

Scoring:: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10
DOMAIN-3 PROBLEM SOLVING

1.Sentence disambiguation
2.Sentence formulation
3.Predicting outcome
4.Compare and contrast
5.Why questions
6.Sequentional analysis
 1.Sentence disambiguation
This includes 5 sentences ,which give ambiguous meaning.
Instruction: clinician will say 5 sentences and person has to explain the two
interpretations from each sentence.

Scoring: 1 point -for every correct interpretation.

2 points -only when both the interpretations are correct explained.
Total score:10
2.Sentence formulation:
Instruction: clinician will say 5 sentences with scrambled word order and
person has to unscramble it to form a grammatically correct sentence.

Scoring:: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:5
4.Compare and contrast
Instruction: clinician will name a pair of objects and person to give one
similarity and one difference between each pair of objects.

Scoring: 1score for a similarity and 1 point for a difference for each item.
Score 0-incorrect response
Total score :10
5.Predicting outcome
Instruction: clinician will describe a situation and person has to predict
possible outcome of the situation.

Scoring: 2 points-if outcome stated clearly and is possible(cohorent answer).

1 point-outcome correct but not explained clearly.
0 point-if answer doesn’t go with the theme of the question.
Total score:10
6.Why questions:
 Instruction: clinician will ask 5 questions in the ‘why’ form and person has to

answer it.

Scoring: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score: 5
7.Sequentional analysis
This includes 5 tasks in sequence
Instruction: clinician will say 5 tasks and subjects are expected to elaborate each
tasks in atleast 4 steps.

Scoring: 2 points- for every correct analysis and in 4 steps

1 point- if analysis is correct but in less than 4 steps
0 point-if the analysis is not correctly sequenced
DOMAIN-4 ORGANISATION
1. Categorization
This measure the word-class organisation ability.
Instruction: clinician will say 5 set of words and person has to
categorize them into the given target word.

Scoring: 1 point for

every correctly identified
coordinate category
Total score :10
2.Anologies:
Instruction: clinician will say 2 words which are related each other.then clinician will
say one word and person has to say an another word which is related to that word.

Scoring:: score 1 for correct response

score 0 for incorrect response
Total score:10
3.Sequencing of events
Instruction: clinician will give 5 different set of stories which are
not arranged in sequence then the person has to read and
arrange the stories in the correct sequence.
Scoring:
Total score: 10
INTERPRETATION:
Cognition may be regarded as having five primary domains , attention ,
memory , executive function , language and visuospatial skill ( sarno 1998).
The ASHA (1987) cognitive and language subcommittee identifies several
aspects of cognition that may affect language :
1. Impaired attention , perception or memory
2. Inflexibility ,impulsivity or disorganized thinking or acting
3. Inefficient processing of information
4. Difficulty processing abstract information
5. Difficulty in learning new information ,rules and procedures
6. Ineffective problem solving and judgment
7. Inappropriate or unconventional social behavior
8. Impaired executive functions , self awareness of strengths and weakness ,
goal setting , planning self initiating , self inhibiting ,self monitoring and
self evaluation .
Cognitive linguistic impairment In aphasia
Orientation :patients are confused about time and place and may provide inaccurate
Information in their discourse that can seriously impairment conversational exchanges.

Scanning : reading comprehension may be impaired; patient may be unable to check /self corre
writing

Visual neglect : may impair reading and writing . May impair pragmatic aspects of discourse,
Such as making eye contact with partners who are in the affected hemi space.

Attention :patients may miss information in spoken discourse or in written material ,

which may have an impact on their responses and cause communication breakdown.

Memory : patient may not retain and / or recall in formation that is conveyed in spoken or writt
form .this may impair their responses and cause communication breakdowns.

Integration : difficulty in appreciating the relationship of discrete elements to an overall structur

It may impair pragmatics and discourse comprehension or production
Planning : it can also impair the patient ‘s ability interpret and respond appropriately to
humor ,sarcasm or indirect request, thus impairing conversational interactions .
Reasoning and problem solving :poor planning can affect the organization and co herance
Of discourse .
SL Domains Subtest Test items Max score
1 Attention Visual Letter cancellation 10
Discrimination
& Contingent letter 10
Perception Cancellation
10
Word cancellation

Sound count 10
auditory
Letter pair 5
discrimination
Word pair 5
discrimination
Month backward 10
naming
2 Memory Episodic Orientation & recent 10
Working memory 5
memory
Semantic
memory Digit forward 5
Digit backward
Co – ordinate naming 5
Super ordinate 5
naming
Word naming fluency 10
Generative naming 5
Repetition
10
Carry out command
3 Problem solving Sentence 10
disambiguation
Sentence formation 5
Prediction outcomes 10
Compare & contrast 10
Predicting cause 10
Why question 5
Sequential analysis 10
4 Organization Categorization 10
analogies 10
Sequencing events 40
THANK YOU