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Objective: To adapt the well-validated 37-item adult Family Needs Questionnaire to make it suitable for families of children and youth with acquired brain injury (ABI). Methods: Measurement construction employed a modified Delphi technique to identify the most relevant content items for the pediatric Family Needs Questionnaire (FNQ-P). The Delphi process involved a panel of 11 ABI-team clinicians and seven family caregivers of children/youth with an ABI and four rounds of anonymous voting on each item's importance. Qualitative responses related to each item's review were incorporated into item content and wording decisions. Cognitive interviews were conducted with three parents after the Delphi to evaluate face and content validity. Results: The outcome of the final Delphi round was a set of 40 items within the original FNQ's original six categories: Health Information (n = 10), Emotional Support (n = 6), Instrumental Support (n = 4), Professional Support (n = 6), Community Support (n = 6), and Involvement with Care (n = 8). Cognitive interviews resulted in changes to formatting, rating scale, and item wording, and culminated in overall consensus about the FNQ-P's face/content validity. Conclusions: Use of the Delphi process with family and clinical partners resulted in content-endorsed pediatric FNQ that is ready for validation work prior to transfer to clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Childhood acquired brain injuries can disrupt communication functions needed for success in school, work and social interaction. Cognitive-communication difficulties may not be apparent until adolescence, when academic, environmental and social-emotional demands increase. Objective: The Functional Assessment of Verbal Reasoning and Executive Strategies for Students (S-FAVRES) is a new activity-level measure of cognitive-communication skills in complex, contextual and integrative tasks that simulate real world communication challenges. It is hypothesized that S-FAVRES performance would differentiate adolescents with and without acquired brain injury (ABI) on scores for Accuracy, Rationale, Reasoning Subskills and Time. Methods: S-FAVRES was administered to 182 typically-developing (TD) and 57 adolescents with mild-to-severe ABI aged 12–19. Group differences, internal consistency, sensitivity, specificity, reliability and contributing factors to performance (age, gender, brain injury) were examined statistically. Results: Those with ABI attained statistically lower Accuracy, Rationale and Reasoning sub-skills scores than their TD peers. Time scores were not significantly different. Performance trends were consistent across tasks, administrations, gender and age groups. Inter-rater reliability for scoring was acceptable. Conclusion: The S-FAVRES provides a reliable, functional and quantifiable measure of subtle cognitive-communication difficulties in adolescents that can assist speech-language pathologists in planning treatment and integration to school and real world communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]