Cognitive and linguistic correlates of children's discourse after closed head injury: A three-year follow-up

Abstract

The discourse of 91 children who had sustained severe (n = 68) or mild (n = 23) closed head injury (CHI) was examined at least three years postinjury. The groups' retellings of a narrative story were analyzed according to two domains, information and language. In comparison to the mild CHI group, the severe group produced stories characterized by reduced content and information, impaired organization, fewer words, and less complex sentences. The relationships between discourse production and the groups' performance on measures of language, executive function, memory, and processing speed were examined. Correlations were found between discourse production and general verbal ability including verbal fluency. Correlations were also found for discourse performance and executive function measures associated with problem solving and working memory. Site and extent of lesion were not useful in predicting discourse production. These findings indicate that children who sustain a severe closed head injury during early to middle childhood are at risk for persisting deficits in discourse processing and other cognitive abilities. (JINS, 2000, 6, 741–751)

Hemispheric and executive influences on low-level language processing after traumatic brain injury

“…Channon & Watts (2003), again studying persons with TBI, found that a joint score made up of three executive functioning measures accounted for 36% of the variance seen in their discourse task. Similar findings have also been reported in children with TBI (Brookshire et al, 2000;Chapman et al, 2004).…”

Cognitive rehabilitation for children with acquired brain injury

“…Specifically, difficulties in the pragmatic or contextual elements of language use have been described [Wiseman-Hakes et al, 1998], as well as deficits in discourse or language organization, such as reductions in the content or amount of information provided, impairments in overall language formulation, use of fewer words, and lower levels of complexity [Brookshire et al, 2000;Coelho, 2007]. Similar deficits in efficiency and completeness have been observed in the written language of children with ABI [Yorkston et al, 1997].…”

Measuring goodness of story narratives: Implications for traumatic brain injury

“…Difficulty with organizing story narratives is a deficit that emerges consistently following traumatic brain injury (TBI) (Body & Perkins, 2004;Brookshire, Chapman, Song, & Levin, 2000;Coelho, 2002). Story grammar measures that tap the organizational structure of stories (e.g., episodes) have been shown to be sensitive to TBI.…”