by Lisa Milman, Audrey Holland
Purpose: Assesses cognitive-communicative deficits and functional ability in patients in rehabilitation hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities
Age: 18 through to 95 yrs
Admin: Individual
Time: 30 - 45 minutes
The Scales of Cognitive and Communicative Ability for Neurorehabilitation (SCCAN) assesses cognitive-communicative deficits and functional ability in patients in rehabilitation hospitals, clinics, and skilled nursing facilities. The SCCAN is appropriate for a broad range of neurological patients, provides a measure of both impairment and functional ability, and can be administered in 30 minutes. It can be used by speech language pathologists, neuropsychologists, psychologists, and related rehabilitation professionals. The SCCAN’s main uses are (1) to identify patients with neurocognitive and communicative impairment, (2) to determine the severity of the impairment, and (3) to help establish appropriate treatment goals and draft patient-specific treatment plans. The SCCAN contents relate to daily activities that adults would be expected to perform for independent living. The SCCAN has eight scales and a total score:
- Oral Expression
- Orientation
- Memory
- Speech Comprehension
- Reading Comprehension
- Writing
- Attention
- Problem Solving
Statistical and Technical Characteristics of the SCCAN
The SCCAN was normed on 256 adults between the ages of 18 and 91 years from 11 states. It yields a standard score, percentile ranks, SEM’s, and percentage scores. Strong evidence of content, time, and interscorer reliability is provided, as well as solid evidence of content-description, criterion-prediction, and construct-identification validity. Samples were collected to evaluate the use of the SCCAN with patients with left and right hemisphere stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury.
Other Special Features of the SCCAN
- Designed for a broad range of patients with language- and non-language based disorders
- Provides basal and ceiling points to decrease examinee fatigue and increase efficiency of test administration
- Facilitates developing recommendations, generating a treatment plan, and providing documentation often mandated by Medicare and third-party payers
- Assists with differential diagnosis by comparing patient’s performance with three profiles particular to certain types of brain injury
- Measures levels of functioning in patients with differing ability levels and/or patients whose ability level changes over time
