Correct Information Unit (CIU) as a Measure of Communicative Informativeness and Efficiency in Persons with Aphasia

Abstract

Correct information unit ( CIU) assesses the la11g11age pe1formance in persons with aphasia. It is a mle based scoring system for measuring the comm11nicative pe1formance of persons with aphasia in connected speech and language which has two important aspects i.e. Com1111111icative informativeness and Communicative efficiency ( Nicholas and Brookshire, 1993). The present study aimed at identification of CIU in connected speech and language of three persons with aphasia as a measure of com1m1nicative informativeness and efficiency in the Indian context. It was found that there was a difference between the ne11ro-typical participants and person with aphasia in words per min11te ( WPM) and percent CIU per minute ( % CIU). It was observed that both the groups pe1formed better in the . measure of % CIU per minute than the measure of WPM. Clinical application of the CIU analysis is certainly warrallted for assessment of connected speech. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of CIU will help professionals to differentially diagnose fluent from non-fluent types of aphasia. It may also yield a stable base line performance against which, changes in connected speech with treatment can be measured.