Advances in Understanding Communication Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury

This collection of papers provides some new perspectives on communication disorders after traumatic brain injury (TBI). New empirical data, reviews of existing studies and clinical observation form the basis of the commentaries each of which attempts to consider communication impairments after TBI in context. Theoretical approaches such as systemic functional grammar, speech act theory and social skills theory are used as frameworks to characterise aspects of communication and, collectively, provide insights into how disorders of communication may fluctuate from one setting to the next and how sociocultural factors and co-existing cognitive disturbances might influence this.
Turkstra and Ylvisaker & Feeney discuss the importance of considering the sociocultural background of individuals (adolescent and adult respectively) with TBI when setting rehabilitation goals. It is clear that many TBI clients come from cohorts that differ significantly from those to which rehabilitation professionals belong and that this has implications for determining the adequacy of current communicative styles and the development of standards of communication and rehabilitation techniques acceptable to the client. Togher presents research which illustrates how different social settings provide differential opportunities for TBI interlocutors influencing the extent to which communication disturbances are manifest. Dennis & Barnes and Godfrey & Shum focus upon the role that co-existing cognitive disorders, working memory deficits and executive dysfunction respectively, play in the production of communication impairment. Finally, McDonald draws these themes together as a springboard for considering the potential role that deficits in social perception may play in the production of communication disorder after traumatic brain injury.