Patterns of early conversational recovery for people with traumatic brain injury and their communication partners.
An An Chia, Emma Power, Belinda Kenny and 7 others
PMID 30798627WHAT IT FOUND
In 17 severe TBI and partner pairs, conversation ratings did not change between 3 and 6 months as a group.
Rater notes showed some old problems eased while new partner habits appeared, such as testing questions.
Key findings
01Conversation participation and partner support scores did not differ significantly between 3 and 6 months post-injury.
02Using the study's 0.5 change threshold, 14 participants made a minimally clinically important difference on the Interaction scale, 9 on the Transaction scale, 13 on the Acknowledging competence scale, and 10 on the Revealing competence scale.
03Rater notes showed that some behaviors stopped and new maladaptive partner behaviors appeared by 6 months, including asking testing questions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included only 17 TBI-CP pairs, so individual patterns may not represent a wider group. The global 0 to 4 MPC/MSC scores may not have detected subtle changes in specific conversational behaviors. Many participants already showed baseline participation scores of 2, leaving little room for change. The raters were two speech pathology students, and inter-rater reliability was not calculated for this study. Only 10 minute casual conversations were rated, so changes in other genres or settings were not captured. The study had no treatment or control group, so it cannot show that any intervention changed conversation.
Declared interests
The authors reported no conflicts of interest. The data are part of a longitudinal project funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the unchanged group scores as proof that conversation did not change. The sample was small, the scores were global, and rater notes showed new partner behaviors by 6 months.