Knowledge and Competence Regarding Percentage of Consonants Correct: A National Survey of Speech-Language Pathologists

Abstract

The purpose of the current national survey was to examine speech-language pathologists’ (SLPs’) competence and confidence regarding the use of Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC). Comparisons were made between recent graduates (post 2005) and pre-2005 graduates to determine if differences existed in their academic and clinical experiences or their competence/confidence in calculating PCC. The majority of SLPs reported a lack of academic and clinical training in the area of PCC. Participants demonstrated limited knowledge of the rules for calculating PCC and decreased calculation ability, in addition to decreased confidence. Recent graduates were better at calculating PCC within the appropriate severity range at the sentence level; however no other significant relationships were found. Because PCC is well-validated, SLPs would benefit from increased clinical and academic exposure to the measure; however, as many SLPs report they do no not use PCC, this somewhat calls into question its’ practicality for clinical purposes.