Background: Dysarthria, aphasia and executive processes have been examined for their role in producing impaired communicative competence post traumatic brain injury (TBI). Less understood is the role of emotional dysregulation, that is, apathy and disinhibition, and social cognition, that is, reading and interpreting social cues. Methods &…

Background: Speech and language therapists (SLTs) share a collective goal of ensuring that adults with cognitive-communication disorders (CCD) due to acquired brain injuries (ABI) attain their highest possible level of participation and satisfaction in family, community, social, work and academic communications through evidence-based…

Background: Adults with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) frequently experience cognitive, emotional, physical and communication deficits that require long-term rehabilitation and community support. Although access to rehabilitation services is linked to positive outcomes, there can be barriers to accessing community rehabilitation related to system…

Purpose: Narrative discourse (e.g., telling anecdotes or relating personal events) comprises a key part of social interaction and is commonly affected after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Research over the past decades has enabled improved characterization of discourse impairment after TBI, but a critical lack of research into discourse…

Purpose: Coordination of communicative behavior supports shared understanding in conversation. The current study brings together analysis of two speech coordination strategies, entrainment and compensation of articulation, in a preliminary investigation into whether strategy organization is shaped by a challenging communicative context--conversing…

Despite the well documented pragmatic deficits that can arise subsequent to Right Hemisphere Brain Damage (RHBD), few researchers have directly studied everyday conversations involving people with RHBD. In recent years, researchers have begun applying Conversation Analysis (CA) to the everyday talk of people with aphasia. This research programme…

A study involving 10 adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and 10 controls found subjects had problems with procedural function, descriptive function, cohesion relations, and narrative function. They also showed problems in functional communication and in general pragmatic ability. Discrete problems in comprehension and in presuppositional…

This article provides examples and illustrations of how people with aphasia can and do demonstrate their competence in managing their lives despite chronic aphasia. It discusses a number of ways in which persons with aphasia and their families can learn to live fully despite the intrusion of aphasia. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This book provides an overview of the causes and symptoms, and the typical courses, treatments, and outcomes of neurogenic communication disorders. Chapter 1 reviews the human nervous system and neurologic causes of adult communication disorders. Chapter 2 discusses the neurologic assessment and arriving at a diagnosis, including the neurologist's…

Three studies observed everyday communication of people with aphasia, traumatic brain injury, and in hospital. Simplification of real-life communication in the World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health, variability of item sampling in existing assessments, and the complexity of real-life…

This article discusses adults with brain injuries and resulting cognitive communicative disorders. The incidence of brain injuries, the effects of cognitive-communication disorders, the role of the speech-language pathologist, the benefits of treatment, and the effects of different treatments are discussed. Charts are included that summarize…

Traumatically head-injured individuals who reach the higher stages of recovery typically exhibit cognitive communication disorders. Patient management requires, among other considerations, a focus on functional communication competency, an ecologic-systematic perspective, and use of compensatory techniques. A case study applies this management…

Special education is now an established part of public education in the United States--by law and by custom. However, it is still widely misunderstood and continues to be dogged by controversies related to such things as categorization, grouping, assessment, placement, funding, instruction, and a variety of legal issues. The purpose of this…