Screening auditory attention skills related to work re-entry for persons with traumatic brain injury

This preliminary study examined the auditory attention skills of six participants with traumatic brain injury who either returned to work or remained unemployed following injury. The SCAN-A was used to screen abilities in sustained, selective, and divided auditory attention. These different levels of attention were often found to be necessary for successful work re-entry. In addition to the SCAN-A, an audiometric evaluation was completed for each participant. Demographic information for time post-onset of injury, initial Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score, education, age, and gender were also obtained. Results indicated that the participants who remained unemployed had mean scores that were at or beyond -1 standard deviation of normative performance on three of the four SCAN-A subtests (Filtered Words, Auditory Figure-Ground, and Competing Words). Additionally, a stepwise discriminant function analysis revealed a statistically significant difference between employed and unemployed participants for the scores on the Competing Sentences subtest. This subtest of the SCAN-A appeared to be sensitive as a screening tool for attention skills necessary for work re-entry.