Narrative after traumatic brain injury: A comparison of monologic and jointly-produced discourse

Primary objective: To investigate the effects of a familiar communication partner on the production of narrative after traumatic brain injury (TBI). Method: Ten participants with TBI were matched with 10 control participants for sex, age, and education. Participants independently retold a story from a picture sequence and also retold a video segment with a friend to a researcher. The resulting discourse was analyzed for productivity, cohesion, story grammar, informational content and exchange structure. Results: There was a significant difference between participants with and without TBI for all measures in the monologic narrative. In the jointly-produced narrative, there was no significant difference in performance and participation between individuals with TBI and control participants. Participants with TBI demonstrated a significant improvement between the monologic and the jointly-produced task in story grammar and informational content. Conclusions: The natural scaffolding provided by the friends of participants with TBI in a meaningful narrative task facilitated competent participation in and production of narrative. These findings indicate an avenue for training everyday communication partners in supporting narrative skills after TBI, and for the use of jointly-produced narrative as an additional assessment tool to create a holistic view of everyday skills.