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

Type of content
Theses / Dissertations
Publisher's DOI/URI
Thesis discipline
Speech and Language Therapy
Degree name
Master of Speech and Language Therapy
Publisher
University of Canterbury. Communication Disorders
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2008
Authors
Davies, Emma Louise
Abstract

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.

Description
Citation
Keywords
Traumatic brain injury, adolescents, language, written language
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
Rights
Copyright Emma Louise Davies