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A Descriptive Study of Pragmatic Skills in the Home Environment after Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury

Keck, Casey S
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8586-3187
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043710

Abstract Details

2016, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Allied Health Sciences: Communication Sciences and Disorders.
The purpose of this dissertation research was to describe children’s pragmatic skills after traumatic brain injury (TBI) within the context of parent-child interactions. Children with TBI are known to exhibit a variety of pragmatic deficits. How these deficits affect a child’s ability to interact with parents is largely unknown. Research examining parent and child pragmatic behavior after TBI is needed because parent-child interactions are an important component of a child’s recovery. Two exploratory studies were conducted. Participants included ten mothers and their child with TBI. Children were 6-12 years old, had sustained a moderate to severe TBI, and were more than one-year post-injury. All participants participated in both studies. The first study used a phenomenological qualitative approach to describe mothers’ experiences communicating with their child with TBI. The mothers’ experiences were collected through semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Interviews were analyzed using a deductive framework and constant comparison analysis to develop home and outside of the home social contexts and pragmatic deficit themes. The results of the first study showed that mothers primarily described their child with TBI as exhibiting average or near average pragmatic skills at home. However, the majority of mothers observed some problematic communication behaviors resulting in six home and five outside of the home contexts in which pragmatic deficits were observed. These contexts consisted of different pragmatic deficit themes, with only three of ten themes overlapping across environments (home and outside of the home). The second study used a descriptive research design to characterize parent-child pragmatic behaviors during a conversation in the home. During the home visit, children completed language, pragmatics, and general intellect assessments. Mothers completed questionnaires on family functioning and the child’s executive function behaviors. Mother-child conversations were recorded then analyzed using exchange structure analysis. Child assessments showed six of the children demonstrated average to near average language, pragmatics, and general intellect. Analysis of the conversations revealed mother-child dyads exhibited positive communication while conversing at home. The mothers asked a higher proportion of questions that placed the child in the position to give information. Children conversed by responding to their mothers’ questions and by spontaneously giving other information. Mothers and children collaborated to repair communication breakdowns and negotiate meaning when the conversational content was ambiguous. Although all dyads exhibited positive communication, the types and proportion of these behaviors varied in ways that appeared in some cases to be related to the child’s communication and cognitive strengths and challenges. This dissertation research contributes to the childhood TBI pragmatic research by showing that mother-child communication may not be a problem after TBI.
Nancy Creaghead, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Lyn Siobhan Turkstra, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Lisa Kelchner, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Lisa Vaughn, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
148 p.
Speech Therapy
Childhood traumatic brain injury; Social communication; Parent-child interactions; Discourse analysis; Pragmatics; Naturalistic interactions

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Keck, C. S. (2016). A Descriptive Study of Pragmatic Skills in the Home Environment after Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043710

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Keck, Casey. A Descriptive Study of Pragmatic Skills in the Home Environment after Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury. 2016. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043710.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Keck, Casey. "A Descriptive Study of Pragmatic Skills in the Home Environment after Childhood Traumatic Brain Injury." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1470043710

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1470043710
272
© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.