THE PROFILE OF FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT IN COMMUNICATION (PFIC) - A MEASURE OF COMMUNICATION IMPAIRMENT FOR CLINICAL USE

This article describes the construction of the Profile of Functional I mpairment in Communication (PFIC), a scale designed for the assessment of communication impairments following traumatic brain injury. The me asure comprises 10 feature summary scales, assessing severity of impai rment, and 84 specific behaviour items, assessing the frequency of spe cific communication impairments. To assess the psychometric properties of the scale, videotaped dyadic social interactions of 20 patients wi th traumatic brain injury were rated by eight trained raters. The feat ure summary scales were found to have acceptable inter-rater reliabili ties, and high concurrent validity and internal consistency. Four case descriptions are presented to illustrate the clinical application of the PFIC. It is concluded that the PFIC is a useful measure for the id entification of specific communication impairments in clinical practic e.