The assessment of communication and interaction skills (ACIS): Measurement properties

The purpose of this study was to develop and validate the Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills (ACIS). The ACIS is an observational rating scale designed to capture, in detail, a person's social interactional ability while he or she is participating in a meaningful social context. Fifty-two occupational therapists, trained to administer the ACIS, completed 244 ACIS assessments of 117 subjects with psychosocial disabilities. The subjects had a wide range of communication and interaction abilities. Many- faceted Rasch analysis was used to analyse the data. The results supported internal, construct and person response validity of the ACIS. Both intra- rater and inter-rater reliability were established. The scale was shown to discriminate between people with psychosocial dysfunction who had varying communication and interaction abilities. In addition, the results indicated a need to do minor revisions to the assessment.