Oral and Written Discourse in Adolescents With Closed Head Injury

"Analysis of oral and written discourse suggested differing cognitive demands for the two modes of expression. Speaking and writing samples were provided by 8 adolescents with closed head injury (CHI) and 8 matched controls. A generation task using the ""Cookie Theft"" picture stimulus provided the basis for discourse analysis. A total of 8 measures [productivity, efficiency, semantic ties (lexical, incomplete, elliptical), maze use, coherence (global, local)] were utilized in this study. Participant performance was viewed according to cognitive-linguistic skills (scores on the Scales of Cognitive Abilities for Traumatic Brain Injury), executive functioning ( Profiles of Executive Functioning), and working memory (Recognition Memory subtest of G-F-W Auditory Memory Tests). Only oral productivity and oral and written local coherence ratings differed significantly from controls. Additionally, the measures of productivity, efficiency and lexical cohesion yielded significant relationships for both groups only in writing to the covariates of executive functioning and/or working memory. A model consisting of group membership (CHI vs. control), executive functioning and working memory helps to explain variance in the discourse skills of adolescents with CHI. Differences in speaking and writing performance after CHI contribute to our understanding of the cognitive-linguistic nature of discourse."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech and Hearing Science

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Wilson, Brenda Marie

Contributors dc:contributor

• Proctor, Adele

• Psychology, Cognitive

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9912428

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/85232