Brief assessment of severe language impairments: Initial validation of the Mississippi aphasia screening test

Primary objective: To validate the Mississippi Aphasia Screening Test (MAST) which includes nine sub-scales measuring expressive and receptive language abilities. Research design: Evaluation of inpatients admitted to neurology, neurosurgery or rehabilitation units at two local hospitals and who were within 60 days of onset of a unilateral ischemic or haemorrhagic stroke (left hemisphere (LH; n = 38); right hemisphere (RH; n = 20)). Additional participants were recruited from the community to comprise a non- patient control sample (NP; n = 36). Methods: Data collection included administration of the MAST and chart review. Results: The LH group showed more impairment than the RH and NP groups on summary scores. The LH group performed worse than the NP group on all sub-scales. The object recognition and verbal fluency sub-scales did not discriminate the stroke groups. Conclusion: Analyses suggest good criterion validity for the MAST in differentiating communication impairments among clinical and control samples.