Humans are social beings by nature (Baumeister, Leary, 1995). People interact every day with others in various settings including the workplace, school, community center, or place of worship and must perform a broad range of communication practices throughout the day to connect with others in order to form relationships. When those communication practices breakdown due to a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), social communication impairments often occur in conversational discourse (Snow, Douglas, & Ponsford, 1998). This may have an adverse effect on important interpersonal relationships (Driscol et al., 2011), especially during the adolescence years when development of self-esteem increases (Mccarthy, Hoge, 1982). Over time, this breakdown can affect
…show more content…
Consequences of a TBI can vary greatly depending on where in the brain the damage occurs and how extensive the damage is (ASHA, 2016). The deficits could include physical, sensory, cognitive-communication, swallowing, and/or behavioral deficits (ASHA, 2016). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) reports that every year at least 1.7 million TBIs occur in the United States with adolescent males ages 15 to 19 years most likely to sustain a TBI (Faul, Xu, Wald, Corondo, 2010). To take a look at a TBI through a communication point of view, patients with TBI typically have difficulty in understanding or producing speech, known as aphasia, and social- pragmatic communication deficits such as turn taking and maintenance of a topic in conversation (ASHA, 2016). Impairments of cognition can affect awareness of surroundings, attention to tasks, reasoning, problem solving, and executive functioning which includes goal settings, planning, initiating, self-awareness, self- monitoring, and evaluation (ASHA, 2016). All of these deficits can greatly impact the interpersonal skills (the ability to get along with others effectively) of a person affected by a TBI which can result in a loss of relationships, work opportunities, and emotional functioning (Anson, Ponsford, …show more content…
A study by Turkstra, McDonald, and Kaufman (1995) assessed the pragmatic communication skills in adolescents after a TBI. 36 high schoolers were used as a control group and 3 male high schoolers with a brain injury participated in this study that measured pragmatics through negotiating requests, hints, the dice game and sarcasm (Turkstra et al., 1995). The results showed that “linguistic skills contribute less to social communication than the ability to perceive incongruity, abstract, infer, and solve problems” (Turkstra et al., 1995) as well as age is not significantly related to performance with regard to targeting pragmatic skills. Dahlberg, Newman, and Whiteneck’s (2007) randomized control study looked to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy on social communication skills to improve pragmatic communication in adults with TBI. The therapy encouraged generalization through homework and family and friend involvement, however did not require it (Dahlberg et. al., 2007). Using an objective and subjective measure and 3, 6, and 9 month follow-ups, Dahlberg et. al. (2007) found that social communication in group training beneficial and skills can be maintained, even after therapy
Consequences of a TBI can vary greatly depending on where in the brain the damage occurs and how extensive the damage is (ASHA, 2016). The deficits could include physical, sensory, cognitive-communication, swallowing, and/or behavioral deficits (ASHA, 2016). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) reports that every year at least 1.7 million TBIs occur in the United States with adolescent males ages 15 to 19 years most likely to sustain a TBI (Faul, Xu, Wald, Corondo, 2010). To take a look at a TBI through a communication point of view, patients with TBI typically have difficulty in understanding or producing speech, known as aphasia, and social- pragmatic communication deficits such as turn taking and maintenance of a topic in conversation (ASHA, 2016). Impairments of cognition can affect awareness of surroundings, attention to tasks, reasoning, problem solving, and executive functioning which includes goal settings, planning, initiating, self-awareness, self- monitoring, and evaluation (ASHA, 2016). All of these deficits can greatly impact the interpersonal skills (the ability to get along with others effectively) of a person affected by a TBI which can result in a loss of relationships, work opportunities, and emotional functioning (Anson, Ponsford, …show more content…
A study by Turkstra, McDonald, and Kaufman (1995) assessed the pragmatic communication skills in adolescents after a TBI. 36 high schoolers were used as a control group and 3 male high schoolers with a brain injury participated in this study that measured pragmatics through negotiating requests, hints, the dice game and sarcasm (Turkstra et al., 1995). The results showed that “linguistic skills contribute less to social communication than the ability to perceive incongruity, abstract, infer, and solve problems” (Turkstra et al., 1995) as well as age is not significantly related to performance with regard to targeting pragmatic skills. Dahlberg, Newman, and Whiteneck’s (2007) randomized control study looked to evaluate the effectiveness of group therapy on social communication skills to improve pragmatic communication in adults with TBI. The therapy encouraged generalization through homework and family and friend involvement, however did not require it (Dahlberg et. al., 2007). Using an objective and subjective measure and 3, 6, and 9 month follow-ups, Dahlberg et. al. (2007) found that social communication in group training beneficial and skills can be maintained, even after therapy