Measuring communicative participation: A review of self-report instruments in speech-language pathology

Purpose: To assess the adequacy of self-report instruments in speech-language pathology for measuring a construct called communicative participation. Method: Six instruments were evaluated relative to (a) the construct measured, (b) the relevance of individual items to communicative participation, and (c) their psychometric properties. Results: No instrument exclusively measured communicative participation. Twenty-six percent (n = 34) of all items (N= 132) across the reviewed instruments were consistent with communicative participation. The majority (76%) of the 34 items were associated with general communication, while the remaining 24% of the items were associated with communication at work, during leisure, or for establishing relationships. Instruments varied relative to psychometric properties. Conclusions: No existing self-report instruments in speech-language pathology were found to be solely dedicated to measuring communicative participation. Developing an instrument for measuring communicative participation is essential for meeting the requirements of our scope of practice.