NARRATIVE SKILLS FOLLOWING TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY IN CHILDREN AND ADULTS

Personal narratives serve an important function in virtually all socie ties (Peterson & McCabe, 1991). Through narratives individuals make se nse of their experiences and represent themselves to others (Bruner, 1 990). The ability to produce narratives has been linked to academic su ccess (Feagans, 1982). Persons who have sustained a traumatic brain in jury (TBI) are at risk for impaired narrative ability (Dennis, 1991). However, a paucity of information exists on the discourse abilities of persons with TBI. This is partly due to a lack of reliable tools with which to assess narrative discourse. The present study utilized depen dency analysis (Deese, 1984) to document and describe the narrative di scourse impairments of children and adults with TBI. Ten children (mea n age 12;0) and 10 adults (mean age 35;2) were compared with matched c ontrols. Dependency analysis reliably differentiated the discourse of the individuals with TBI from their controls. Individuals with TBI wer e significantly more dysfluent than their matched controls. Furthermor e, their performance on the narrative task revealed a striking listene r burden. (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.