Long term effects of early childhood traumatic brain injury on narrative discourse gist and psychosocial functioning.
Jessica M Aguilar, Chloe B Elleman, Amy E Cassedy and 5 others
PMID 30978116WHAT IT FOUND
Years after severe early childhood TBI, children produced less story language and missed the gist.
Lower gist scores were linked with poorer social competence and everyday functioning.
Key findings
01Children with severe TBI performed significantly worse than children with orthopedic injury and children with moderate TBI on all narrative discourse measures.
02Higher gist reasoning scores were significantly associated with better social competence and better everyday functioning.
03Severe TBI was associated with poorer social competence and everyday functioning; moderate TBI was associated with poorer everyday functioning.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The severe TBI group was small, with 14 children in the discourse analyses, so findings for that group are less stable. Discourse data were missing for 12 of 130 children because one child did not complete the task and 11 audio files were lost or deleted. The study is observational. It compares groups and reports associations, but it does not show that TBI caused the later discourse or psychosocial differences. The measures may not have been sensitive enough to detect subtle impairments in the moderate TBI group, and the narrative task may not have been challenging enough for adolescents. The sample spoke English at home, was recruited from Ohio hospitals, and excluded children with prior autism, mental retardation, or neurological disorder, so results may not apply to all children with TBI.
Declared interests
The supplied article metadata lists research support from the N.I.H. extramural program and non-U.S. government research. The supplied text does not include an author conflict of interest declaration.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that a therapy improves narrative discourse or psychosocial functioning. This is a long-term observational study, and it reports associations rather than tested treatment effects. The severe TBI group was also small.