Development and Validation of an Indigenous Urdu Naming Test for Assessing Paraphasia in Adults With Aphasia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jrsr/2026.v.iv.223Keywords:
Aphasia, Anomia, Paraphasia, Urdu Naming Test, Confrontation Naming, Factor Analysis, Construct Validity, PakistanAbstract
Paraphasia, a disruption of word-level language production that commonly follows stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other neurological damage, is frequently assessed with confrontation naming instruments, yet very few such tools have been developed for Urdu, the national language of Pakistan and a first or second language for several hundred million speakers across South Asia. This two-phase study developed and validated an indigenous Urdu Naming Test (UNT) for identifying and classifying paraphasic errors in adults with aphasia. In Phase I, an item pool of 50 picture-naming stimuli was generated from open-ended interviews with 20 neurologically healthy adults and 50 patients with aphasia, refined through review by three subject-matter experts, and then administered to 230 patients with aphasia (ages 22-80) drawn from hospitals in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. Exploratory factor analysis using principal component extraction with direct oblimin rotation supported a three-factor, 30-item structure accounting for a substantial share of the total variance, and the scale demonstrated strong internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = .89). In Phase II, construct validity was examined in an independent sample of 100 patients with aphasia (ages 20-45) by correlating UNT scores with the Boston Naming Test (BNT) and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC). The UNT correlated strongly and positively with the BNT (r = .83), supporting convergent validity, and correlated strongly and negatively with the WISC (r = -.69), supporting discriminant validity. These findings suggest that the UNT is a reliable and valid, culturally and linguistically appropriate instrument for assessing paraphasia among Urdu-speaking patients with aphasia, with implications for clinical assessment and rehabilitation planning in the region.
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