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Background and Aim: scapular position is one of the most important parts of a comprehensive approach to evaluation of patients with suspected shoulder dysfunction.Muscular imbalance has further been suggested to be a leading cause of asymmetrical motions and positions of scapula.

Kibler Introduced Lateral scapular slide test (LSST) quantitatively measures scapular symmetry, scapular stabilizer strength and shoulder girdle dysfunction threshold .

The literature recommends a further study on the reliability of LSST by using precise instrument such as caliper. Therefore, the main goal of present study was to determine the inter rater reliability of the LSST by using the caliper in comparison with the tape in patients with shoulder pathology

Material & Method: The LSST was administered to twenty men patients with a mean age 37.19 of years.(SD:12.42).The distances between the inferior angle of scapula &T7 were recorded. Subjects were tested with arm in neutral, hands on hips and 90 degrees of abduction full internal rotation. All data for tape and caliper in 0,45 and 90 degrees of shoulder abduction  were analyzed with SPSS (V:11.5).

Results: The ICCs range of inter- rater reliability were respectively (0.56-0.76) and (0.73-0.88) for tape and caliper in 0,45 and 90 degrees of abduction. Differences between ICCs for caliper and tape are not statisticaly significant. The SEM range was from 6.78 to 9.29 mm for tape and from 4.33 to 8.19 mm for caliper.  

Conclusion&Discusion:  This study showed that inter rater reliability of LSST is questionable. Although ICCs for caliper are better than tape but in third position of the test in both measurement method ICC were low. Further research is needed.

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Background and Aim: Normal & skillful function of hand is an essential part of activity of daily living. Analysis of the function of hand shows the major contribution of fine movements.  Fine movement is also important in motor development. In this regard, any deficiency in fine movement may cause various problems for children. Hence, assessment of fine movement in children, particularly in mental retardation disorders is a prerequisite of any rehabilitation protocol. 

Material & Methods: 27 mental retarded children were participated in this cross sectional study.  Children were in the range of 7-10 Yrs (Mean & SD, 8/11 &1/09 yrs, respectively). Parents were asked to sign the informed consent. Purdue Peg board test was used for the assessment of hand skill. After fifteen sessions of intervention including eye hand coordination activities, Purdue Peg board test were repeated.

Results: Speed of movements (rates in 30 seconds) in dominant & recessive hand, coordination of both hands and hand skills were significantly differed (pre & post intervention, P≤ 0/05).

It was also revealed that hand skills are directly related with speed movement of dominant hand. ( P≤  0/05).  Furthermore, there was no difference in the eye hand coordination activities of male and female individuals. ( P≤  0/05). 

Conclusion: The results of this study showed that eye-hand coordination activities have positively affected the skill of hand movement in educable Mental retardation students in both sex.

Simple skills such as speed of hand improved in shorter time in comparison with complicated skills (e.g. coordination of tow hand).

Based on these evidences, a comprehensive rehabilitation program including eye hand coordination activities would be suggested for educable Mental retardation individual.

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Background and Aim: Balance is an essential part of motor development. Assessment of balance in children with neurological disorders is necessary before any treatment. There are various versions of balance tests for adult assessment however, little has been done with regard to a reliable test for evaluating the balance in children with spastic cerebral palsy.      

The purpose of this study was to investigate inter and intra rater reliability of Berg balance scale in children with spastic hemieplegia.

Material & Methods: 20 Spastic hemieplegia children were participated in this study (cross sectional).  Children were in the range of 6-12 Yrs (Mean & SD, 7/10 &1/58 yrs, correspondingly). Parents were asked to sign the informed consent. Berg Balance Scale tested in one session by two therapist for inter rater and repeated tests by the same therapist for intra rater reliability after a week.

Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) test was used for inter rater (between two therapists, ICC= 0.966, p<001 and intra rater reliability (repeated test by the same therapist, ICC= 0.988 , p<001 ).

Conclusion: The result of this study suggests that inter rater and intra rater reliability of Berg balance scale is acceptable. Therefore, it could be used in clinic for the assessment of children with spastic hemieplegia as a reliable scale.

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Background and Aim: Developmental coordination disorder is characterized by motor in-proficiency, resulting in significant impairments in social and academic functioning. We examine whether life style differences between elementary male students in two socio-economic different areas of Tehran may be reflected in developmental coordination disorder prevalence rates.

Materials and Methods: Two matched groups of 70 children were compared by use of BOTMP short form.

Results: The results show that the standard scores for children in the first area were significantly higher than the sixteenth area (P= 0.026).

Conclusion: Above findings suggest that different life styles may influence the motor skills and developmental coordination disorder prevalence in elementary children.

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Background and aim: The lateral scapular slide test (LSST) is used to determine scapular position and scapular asymmetry with the arm abducted 0, 45, and 90 degrees in the coronal plane. This test was introduced by Kibler. Assessment of scapular position is based on the derived difference measurement of bilateral scapular distances and the distance of inferior angle of scapula to spinous process of T7 vertebra. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of measurements (intra rater, inter rater, sensitivity and specificity) of LSST in assessment of scapular asymmetry and scapular dysfunction in patients with shoulder impairments.

Materials and Methods: Subjects:  Fifty-seven subjects participated in this cross sectional study.

Twenty seven subjects in shoulder impairment group (X=47.66, SD=11.64) and thirty subjects in normal group(X=33.53, SD=11.72). Three examiners measured the distance of inferior angle of scapula to spinous process of T7 vertebra at two sides in three different positions by a caliper verneer (accuracy: 0.01 mm). Position 1 involves of the shoulder in glenohumeral joint neutral. In position 2, the humerus is placed in a position of medial rotation with 45 degrees of shoulder abduction. In position 3, the upper extremity is placed in a position of maximal medial rotation with 90 degrees of shoulder abduction. The data were analyzed with SPSS (version: 11.5). ICCs and SEMs were calculated.

Results: The ICCs for intra-rater reliability were 0.87 to 0.97 for subjects without and with shoulder impairments and 0.63 to 0.79 for inter-rater reliability in subjects with shoulder pathology (involved side). The SEMs ranged from 0.57 to 0.86 cm for intra-rater reliability and from 0.79 to 1.20 cm for inter-rater reliability. Sensitivity of the test was high(80% to 100%) but specificity  was low (4% to 26%).

Conclusion : The lateral scapular slide test has high sensitivity and good to high level of intra rater reliability at three different test positions. The test showed low specificity and poor to fair inter rater reliability at three different test positions particularly at position 3.

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Background and aim:The current research provides a word association test and determine its validity and reliability in Persian (farsi) language.
Materials and methods: A word association test was administered to a group of twenty girls and twenty one boys that were similar in age and education. Based on Goldfarb's word association test , word stimuli were balanced according to frequency of occurrence (frequent, infrequent), word length (short, long), abstraction level (low , medium, high) ,and grammatical class (noun ,verb, adjective ) . Based on "Recognition basic word's Iranian student in primary school"(nemat zade,1384),180 words were selected. This words scored by experts. Seventy two words were selected . The test administered in oral on the first grade students .Then responses were coded as paradigmatic or sytagmatic . Results were analyzed by Maknamar and Capa test.
Results: Findings show high correlation between first and second test in three grammatical Class (noun, verb, adjective, p=0/001).High correlation exists between two stages of test.
Conclusion: These findings show word association test is valid and reliable .This is usable in assessment of semantic development and language development.

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Background and aim: Active straight leg raise test in patients with sacroiliac joint dysfunction (SIJ ) is accompanied by feeling pain on joint or heaviness and inability to lift the leg. This test has been advocated as reliable and valid test for the quality of load transfer through the lumbo-pelvic region. With respect to the important role of muscles, in pelvic stability and with respect to patients with SIJ dysfunction can not do this test easily. There is no study has been done about assessment and comparison  of changes in muscle timing of pelvic stabilizer muscles and duration of ramping time during ASLR between healthy and patients with SIJ dysfunction 

Materials and methods:Eleven female subjects with clinical diagnosis of sacroiliac joint pain and 15 match healthy female subjects were tested in the supine resting position with the ASLR. Surface electromyography of rectus abdominus , oblique externus , oblique internus  , adductor longus , biceps femoris , gluteus maximus and  erector spine muscles  were recorded during ASLR test. Timing of muscles and ramp time during ASLR  test were acquired and measured in MATLAB software . 

Results: No statistically significance were found in ramp time between two groups. The onset timing of activation of adductor longus (A.L) was delayed on symptomatic side in subject with SIJ pain (P=0.006).

Conclusion: Delayed onset of A.L suggests an alteration in strategy for lumbopelvic stabilization that may disrupt load transfer through the pelvis.

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Back ground and aim: Specific language impairment is one of developmental language disorders in children which have no known etiology. Very few researches have been done about children with this type of disorder in Persian language. The aim of this study is to detect whether there are similarity in language abilities between SLI children and their MLU -m matched group or not.

 Materials and Methods: In this case- control study, the results of speech samples analysis, quotients for composite scores and standard scores of subtests of TOLD, from 12(7 boys and 5 girls) 5-7 years old children with SLI were compared with the results obtained from 12 younger normal (8 boys and 5 girls) children who were matched according to MLU- m with SLI children.

 Results: results show that there are no obvious differences in percent- point average use of words and morphemes in speech between two groups. While the two groups were adapted according to m-MLU, but we found that children with SLI are significantly lower than their MLU matched children in quotients for composite scores of spoken language, organization and semantic and in standard scores of sentence imitation, relational vocabulary and oral vocabulary subtests of TOLD.

Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated that some language skills in children with SLI are lower than their MLU matched peers. Results of this study were not provided evidence to support the hypothesis that children with similar m-MLU have similar language skills too. So it is necessary for clinician to consider it when they work with these children. 

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 Background and aim: The main problem of people with hearing loss is difficulty of hearing in background noise. One of the best tests that are used to evaluate speech perception in background noise is Quick Speech in Noise Test. The purpose of current study is to assess test-retest reliability and list equivalency of the Persian version of Quick Speech in Noise Test in young people with normal hearing. 

Material and methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 36 young (18-35 years old) individuals with normal hearing. Materials were presented via compact disk of Persian version of quick speech in noise test with standard earphone. Almost one week after test session, re-test was performed. All of the correct words were scored and then signal to noise ratio loss was calculated.

Results: The mean SNR Loss was -1.5±0.74 dB. there was significant difference between test- retest scores for lists 1(p<0/05) and no significant difference between test- retest scores for lists 2, 3 and 4(p>0/05). There was significant difference between mean results of list 4 with list 1(p<0/05). There was significant difference for test- retest Pearson's Correlation in all lists.

Conclusion: Lists 2 and 3 of Persian version of Quick Speech in Noise Test are reliable and equivalent for determining signal to noise ratio loss.

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Background and Aim: Stuttering contains speech disruption or observed behaviors and inner reactions of speech- associated or emotional, disruptive, coping, and attitudinal reactions. Inner events can be reported by the person who stutters but can not be reliably defined by listener perceptions. Both the disorder's directly observable and inner elements and their interactive effects need to be fully assessed to achieve to clinically deals. This study investigates validity and reliability of the tests about inner events in stuttering children.
Materials & Methods: This descriptive and analytical study was performed on 96 stuttering and non stuttering students in 6-11 (similar in age and sex). After Persian equalization of questionnaire and verifying, tests validity are scored by 10 experts. In order to tests reliability, children performed tests in two stages (25 days interval). Three methods were used: 1.comparsion between the mean tests scores in two stage 2.Investigation of correlation between two stages. 3. Investigation of results reliability (ICC). The data were analyzed by parametric and non-parametric statistical tests (paired t-test, spearman and pearson).Independent t-test were used in order to compare the mean tests scores between stuttering and non- stuttering children.
Results: Although there was different between the mean BCL and CAT scores of stuttering and non stuttering children but this between group difference is not statistically significant (p>0.05) . The mean BCL and CAT scores between two group (stuttering and non-stuttering) was statistically significant (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Behavioral checklist and communication attitude tests changed in stuttering children at 6-11 age. Both are valid and reliable and these tests distinguish between stuttering and non stuttering children.

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Background and Aim: The standard tests are tools for quantifying different aspects of speech & language abilities and communicative skills. However developing and applying standard tests is necessary for assessing, screening, defining the speech & language abilities, diagnosing the speech & language disorders and attending to outcomes of treatment process. Therefore in this study for providing general view of speech & language assessment tests, we reviewed some of tests related to some important aspects of speech & language abilities.
Method: This research is a review study based on American speech-language and hearing association. We reviewed exactly the tests that are in this association site because it is one of comprehensive and reliable references for speech-language pathologists. Just four most practical aspects of them, from the first test developed to now (2010), are selected and then analyzed.
Results: In this study, 251 tests of assessment of speech and language are reviewed. 54 tests are related to articulation and phonological assessment. One hundred and forty tests are related to assessment of children expressive language. Forty three tests are available for assessing the expressive language in adult. 14 tests are presented for evaluating autistic children.
Conclusion: However there are widespread spectrum of standard tests but it is necessary to develop other tests in different aspects of speech and language pathology.

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Background and aim:  For the rehabilitation program of the anterior cruciate ligament reconstructed patients (ACLR) strength and functional assessment and comparing with the uninvolved side is in great importance. Strength plays an important role in performing vertical jump moreover. It is performed in closed kinetic chain. Despite this importance, no information exists regarding the relationship on peak force of linear isokinetic and vertical jump score. The purposes of this study were1- To determine correlation between isokinetic squat and vertical jump in healthy and ACLR patients. 2- Comparing the peak force and vertical jump between the involved and uninvolved side of the ACLR patients.   
Materials and Methods: Twenty two ACLR patients with 6 months post-surgery and 16 healthy men participated in this study. Their isokinetic squat strength at the testing velocity of 25.4 cm/sec and vertical jump was measured.
Results: ACLR patients' peak force and vertical jump were significantly different between the involved and uninvolved side P≤0.05. The findings showed low relationship )r=0.425)  at the involved side between the vertical jump and peak force of squat, however, there was no relationship in the uninvolved side and the control group.
Conclusion: Findings of  this study indicate no relationship between vertical jump and peak force of squat. Both testing methods should be used since strength not always correlate strongly with physical performance.   Closed kinetic chain isokinetic testing should be used for testing lower extremity strength, while vertical jump should be used to determine performance levels.

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Background and aim: The communicative functioning of children who stutter can be assessed in a variety of ways. Standardized tests are an important tool to assess communication skills particularly in stuttering children .The purpose of the present study was to translate the Test of childhood Stuttering (TOCS) into persian and investigation of validity and reliability of the test .
Materials and methods: In this research, 40 stutterers and 40 non-stutterer were evaluated. After the translation of the Test according to Protocol IQOLA and its equalization to Persian Language, Content validity and Face validity of it were determined by the opinions of experts. Then, for concurrent validity determination 80 stutterer and non-stutterer children were examined by TOCS and SSI3 .In order to test reliability, test -retest and Cronbach,s alpha were used.
Results: Entirely relevant items had simple translation. The translation items had content and face validity correlation between the marks of TOCS and SSI3 (p=0.000, r= %92). TOCS has high Test-retest ( p=0.000, ICC= %97) and internal reliability (p=0.000,α=%90).
Conclusion: Persian equalized TOCS (Test of childhood stuttering) have high validity and reliability. it might be useful to differentiate stuttering children among normal ones.

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Background and aim: Knee joint has a major role in various lower extremity activities. Among different elements of knee joint complex more interest was seen to anterior cruciate ligament because of its alignment, structural complications, more nerve receptors and susceptibility to injury. After injury of this ligament, knee extensor torque decreases but it is believed that this decrease compensated for by muscles of hip and ankle joints. This suggestion has not investigated by isokinetic studies. Therefore, the aim of this research was that if quadriceps muscle torque decreases in spite of rehabilitation process and if this decrease compensated for by hip extensors and ankle plantar flexors?

Materials and methods: 10 healthy men (age: 22-35 years old) and 10 patients with ACL deficiency (age: 23-42 years old) participated in this study. Plantar flexor muscle strength, quadriceps muscle strength and hip extensor muscle strength were tested by Isokinetic Biodex System 3 at 60 and 180 degrees of angular velocities. Also functional vertical jump test was done for each lower extremity.
Results: Will coxson test and Spearman correlation coefficient were used. Results showed that there was no significant difference between mean strength of gastrosoleus, hip extensors and sum of mean strength of gastrosoleus, quadriceps and hip extensors of patient's injured and sound limbs (P>0.05). Results showed that there was significant difference between mean strength of quadriceps of injured and sound limbs (P> 0.01). There was no relationship between gastrosoleus, quadriceps and hip extensor summation and vertical jump functional test in the patients and normal subjects (P>0.05).
Conclusion: The results show that compensation occurs in the ankle plantar flexors and hip extensors of injured lower extremity. Thus in spite of significant decrease in quadriceps strength in the injured limb, sum of mean strength of gastrosoleus, quadriceps and hip extensor muscles between injured and sound limbs was not statistically significant. Also there was no relationship between functional test and isokinetic parameters. Thus functional vertical jump test can not be used instead of isokinetic test.

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Background and Aim: Many of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients with normal pure tone thresholds complain from difficulties in their hearing, especially perception of speech in background noise. Many tests for evaluation of this dysfunction have been developed one of the best tests that are applied for evaluating the ability of individual to process and categorize brief, rapid changes in auditory stimuli is duration pattern sequence test (DPST). Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to compare between MS and normal 18-40-years-old participants by the duration pattern sequence test (DPST).

Materials and Methods: This analytic-descriptive non-invasive cohort study was conducted on 20 relapsing-remitting MS and 26 normal subjects 18-40-year-old with normal hearing. The finding data, percent of corrected answers, in two groups was evaluated by T-test. 

Results: The finding showed reduction of corrected answers percentage in DPST test between two groups (P<0.05). in addition, long periods of  the disease showed poor performance in DPST test in both ear.   

Conclusion: The findings of this study confirm that temporal resolution deficits in patient with MS may be related to involvement of central auditory processing nervous system.

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Background and Aim: Auditory discrimination is one component of central auditory processing skills or auditory perception, that has an important role in acquisition and production of speech sounds. Auditory discrimination test is a tool for screening or diagnosis of auditory discrimination. The aim of this study is to investigate of auditory discrimination development process in 4-6 years old children in Semnan city. 

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey was done on 200 normal 4-6 years old children in semnan city. Auditory discrimination skill was evaluated by Wepman auditory discrimination test (WADT) .The level of significancy in this study was 0.05.

 Results: Auditory discrimination skills based on percentage of 5 and 95 for 4 years old children were 20 and 36, 21.85 and 38 for 5 years old, 23.30 and 39.35 for 6 years old children. There was significant differences between 4 years old children with 5 and 6 years old children In auditory discrimination skill (P=0.003), but there  was no significant difference between 5 and 6 years old children(P=0.21). In addition, auditory discrimination test scores between boys and girls were not significant (P=0.34).

Conclusion: Results of this study showed that children ability in discrimination of sounds was increased with age.

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Background and Aim: Measurement of reaction time and anticipation skill are used widely in therapeutic exercises or sport programs. Improvement of anticipation skill  and reaction time in any exercise or activity that need fast and correct reaction time for deciding and doing a suitable movement, can improve the motor control and its strategies as well as central processing. There is a need for an easy-to-use program that can run reaction time tasks and anticipation skills with no special experiments. There is no system for objective measurement of above variables in our country, so designing and construction of a system for reaction time test and anticipation skill estimation was carried out.

 Materials and Methods: A system that consist of software, lap top, LCD and key board was designed. The software of the system had two subsystems for measuring reaction time and estimating anticipation skill.

Results: By use of the above equipments, 6 tests of video choice reaction time, audio choice reaction time, video complex choice reaction time, audio complex choice reaction time, high speed anticipation skill and low speed anticipation skill were performed. Structural and content validity of the system was estimated very high.

 Conclusion: Current system can use in many therapeutic and sport centers simply and provide basic data about motor control strategies. By use of it, there is a better judgment about effectiveness of various treatments and sport-men selection, too.

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Background and Aim: Developmental dysgraphia is a kind of learning disabilities in school students. Evaluation of the sensory and motor skills in hand  of these persons by appropriate, functional and real tests demonstrates that their fine and complex hand sensory-motor abilities are prerequisites of intervention planning.  Purdue Pegboard and Two-Point Discrimination Tests are used for evaluation of the hand motor and sensory skills respectively. This study was aimed to evaluate the test-retest reliability of these tests in students with developmental dysgraphia.

Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study hand sensory-motor skills were evaluated in 23 students with developmental dysgraphia (8-11 years) in Tabriz city by Purdue Pegboard and static and moving Two-Point Discrimination tests. Test-retest reliability of mentioned tests was done between and within examiners via intra-class correlation coefficient and independent t-test  was done for the comparison of the skills between girls and boys and right and left-handed students and Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated for the relationship between motor and sensory skills.

Results: Intra-class correlation coefficients of Purdue Pegboard, static and moving two-point discrimination tests for inter-session and intra-session reliability were ranged from 0.77 to 0.94 and 0.69 to 0.92 respectively. There was no significant relationship between motor and sensory skills (p>0.05).

Conclusion: Because of high reliability of these tests, it can be used them for evaluating the sensory-motor skills and intervention planning in students with developmental dysgraphia. Loss of relationship between motor and sensory skills can be related to the pathology of dysgraphia that needs further researches. 

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Background and Aim: Perceptual abilities (reaction time and anticipatory skill) are essential for successful performance in daily activities. Training in dynamic and unpredicted sport domains such as volleyball might make changes in perceptual abilities of athletes compared to non-athletes. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare reaction time and anticipatory skill of volleyball players versus non-athletes.

 Materials and Methods: Eleven female volleyball players and 11 female non-athletes participated in this study. Auditory choice reaction time, auditory complex choice reaction time, visual choice reaction time, visual complex choice reaction time, anticipatory skill of the high speed of the ball and anticipatory skill of the low speed of ball of both groups were analyzed by a software (Speed Anticipation Reaction Test (SART)).

Results: Statistical analysis did not show any significant differences between two groups in both auditory reaction time tests (P> 0.05). However, volleyball players showed better results in visual choice reaction time, visual complex choice reaction time, anticipatory skill of the high speed of the ball and anticipatory skill of the low speed of ball tests (P> 0.05).

Conclusion: Volleyball players acquire extensive knowledge of sport specific patterns of perceptual abilities due to experiences within the volleyball domain and due to the efficient extraction of this knowledge in similar conditions such as, computerized neurocognitive tests, they have superior perceptual skills than non-athletes.

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Background and Aim: Semantic test "Pyramid and Palm Trees"(PPT) Test was used for assessing cognition and semantic system in brain disorders, semantic dementia, Alzheimer disease and aphasia. This test was designed in 1992 by Howard and Patterson and includes both versions picture and word. It has validity and reliability. The aim of this study is to determine of validity and reliability of Persian picture version "Pyramids and Palm Trees" Test and compare with aphasia and normal adults.

Materials and Methods: In this cross - sectional study, 45 subjects included 15 Aphasia and 30 normal adults respectively the mean age and standard deviation of 53 (7.77), 53 (7.91) years participated. All of participants were matched in the age and sex, and education and bilingualism. In the first stage, the picture version PPT had given to 14 expert(11 Speech and language pathologists, 3 Linguists) in order to determine content and face validity. According to their comments, pictures that were very far from Persian culture were replaced with proportional pictures with Persian culture. Then the reliability was calculated by performance of PPT during an interval of 5-7 days in two stages for all of aphasia patients. In order to compare of results, PPT was performed on normal adults. Then, the results were analyzed by SPSS18 software. The statistic tests were included of lavashh correlation for validity, Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) for reliability and independent T-Test for comparison of scores mean of picture version PPT between aphasia and normal adults.

Results: ICC ranges for reliability were 0.88 – 0.93. Also difference of scores mean of picture version PPT between aphasia and normal adults were significant (p<0.05).

Conclusion: The Persian version PPT have validity and reliability. This study showed semantic disorder in aphasia patients in compared with normal adults.