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    Written Persuasive Discourse Abilities of Adolescents with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

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    Author
    Davies, Emma Louise
    Date
    2008
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10092/3697
    Thesis Discipline
    Speech and Language Therapy
    Degree Grantor
    University of Canterbury
    Degree Level
    Masters
    Degree Name
    Master of Speech and Language Therapy

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of adolescents with traumatic brain injury on a written persuasive discourse task. Nine adolescents with TBI (mean age = 14 years 4 months) and nine age, gender and education matched peers completed a written essay on the topic of whether trained animals in circuses should be allowed to perform for the public. Language measures included productivity (number of words, number of T-units and mean length of T-unit) and complexity (number of clauses, clause density and clause breakdown). Pragmatic measures were drawn from the developmental persuasive discourse literature and included essential elements of argument (claim, number of reasons, number of elaborations, conclusion, irrelevancies, repetition of information and attitude). In comparison to their age-matched peers, the TBI group produced significantly fewer reasons to support their claims, significantly more repetitions of information and failed to take alternative perspectives on the topic. There were no significant differences on any measures of language productivity or complexity, however the TBI group performed consistently below their peers on these measures. The results are discussed alongside current literature in the field of discourse production and persuasion. Implications for clinical practice and future directions for research in this area are also offered.

    Subjects
    Traumatic brain injury
     
    adolescents
     
    language
     
    written language
    Collections
    • Science: Theses and Dissertations [3298]
    Rights
    http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml

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