Communication impairments are common after brain injury with incidence rates higher than 75%. Most often these are cognitive-communication deficits that result from underlying cognitive or thinking difficulties (e.g. attention, memory, reasoning). After a brain injury, communication difficulties can be difficult to detect and describe. Many people find that others think they are “fine” because their speech sounds clear. The CCCABI is a referral tool designed to help identify communication difficulties after brain injury that require referral to a speech-language pathologist (speech therapist).
The CCCABI was designed for four reasons:
- To help people with brain injuries and their families to describe some of the difficulties they are experiencing.
- To help healthcare professionals detect communication difficulties more consistently.
- To help administrators, program leaders, and funding sources to understand the effects of brain injury on a person’s ability to think and communicate.
- To help people with brain injuries to be referred to a speech-language pathologist (SLP), a professional trained to help with these communication and thinking difficulties called “cognitive-communication impairments”.
Caution: The CCCABI is a referral tool only; it is not intended to replace thorough SLP assessment or to provide a diagnosis. Once difficulties are identified the individual should be referred to an SLP for a full assessment.
Colourful CCCABI checklists can be ordered in print form through www.ccdpublishing.com
I hope you will find the CCCABI to be helpful.
To download the CCCABI please click here.
To download the CCCABI-fr (Version française) click here
To download the references for the CCCABI click here.
Sheila MacDonald
