Conversational assessment following traumatic brain injury: a comparison across two control groups
Abstract
Although changes in discourse are frequently referred to in the traumatic brain injury (TBI) literature, they are difficult to objectify and measure. It is not always easy, therefore, for clinicians to differentiate between discourse behaviours which may have been present premorbidly, and those which are uniquely associated with TBI. The major aim of this study was to systematically examine and describe the nature of conversational impairment following severe TBI, with particular reference to the premorbid sociolinguistic characteristics of the TBI population. A second aim of the study was to examine the relationship between discourse impairment following TBI and severity of injury. Twenty-six TBI participants were compared with 26 non-brain-injured orthopaedic patients, and 26 university students, using Damico's Clinical Discourse Analysis (CDA). As predicted, global measures derived from the CDA did not differentiate the groups. The TBI group was, however, found to differ significantly from both control groups on a modified measure (CDA-M) which removes discourse errors that occurred with similar frequency across the three groups. Performance on this measure correlated significantly with severity of injury. Further, it was fo...Continue Reading
Citations
Early conversational discourse abilities following traumatic brain injury: an acute predictive study
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brain injury after impact to the head is due to both immediate mechanical effects and delayed responses of neural tissues.