![Sample our Behavioral Sciences journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110801/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Behavioral-Sciences.jpg"})
Abstract
Background: Social communication problems are a major contributor to negative life outcomes for adults with brain injury, yet the basic skill deficits underlying these problems are poorly understood.
Aim: To examine one aspect of social communication that may have a negative impact on social interactions: the ability to successfully take turns in a conversation.
Methods & Procedures: Seventeen adults with traumatic brain injury and two with bilateral strokes, and their typical peers matched for age and sex, viewed video-recorded conversations and indicated when they could join in the conversation. Turn timing was compared between groups using a novel statistical method designed for this study.
Outcomes & Results: There was a significant between-groups difference in timing of turn-taking but no significant difference in number of turns. The novel analysis method revealed between-groups differences in responding to specific conversational cues.
Conclusions: Adults with brain injury may miss or misinterpret verbal and non-verbal cues to turn-taking, which could contribute to conversation partners’ perceptions of impaired conversation skills in adults in this population.
Keywords:
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Maggie Flynn for her assistance with data scoring, Katie Peterangelo and Andrea Kettler for assistance with data collection.