Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2012

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury often leads to cognitive communication disorders, commonly disorders of written discourse. Research in the field of written discourse after traumatic brain injury does not provide a strong protocol for improvement of functional written skills. The aim of this study was to create an effective treatment plan to address written discourse impairments in two college students from Eastern Illinois University with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Individualized treatment plans were developed for participants based on the need for improvement in productivity, efficiency, and coherence (both global and local) in written discourse. Treatment was developed based on individual needs and focused on reducing executive functioning, working memory, and selective attention demands. Productivity was treated by creating outlines to reduce cognitive demands and organize topics for each writing sample. Efficiency improvements were targeted by prompting the participants to self-judge the conciseness of each sentence. Coherence was treated by requiring participants to self-assess the connectedness of the sentences to the topic and to each other. Results are discussed.

Download

Share

COinS