Perceived Communication and Communication-Related Metacognitive Knowledge after Traumatic Brain Injury: An Exploratory Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the nature of 1) perceived communication ability, 2) communication-related metacognitive knowledge and 3) associations between communication-related metacognitive knowledge and injury and demographic variables in adults with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their close others over time Participants: 27 participants with severe TBI and their close others Design: Longitudinal, repeated measures design Measure: The La Trobe Communication Questionnaire was administered at six, 12 and 24 months post injury Analysis: One-way repeated measures analysis of variance and Friedman tests were applied to measure changes in perceived communication ability. Changes in communication-related metacognitive knowledge were analysed using inferential and descriptive statistics. Spearman’s correlation coefficient was utilised to determine associations between communication-related metacognitive knowledge and injury and demographic variables over time. Results: TBI participants with a mild communication disability perceived more frequent communication problems over time, especially from 12 months. Problems perceived to occur more frequently over time were related to initiation/conversational flow. Close others did not perceive significant changes in their relatives’ communication over time. People with a mild communication disability had better communication-related metacognitive knowledge over time. They perceived more frequent problems than their close others perceived them to have, whereas participants with a moderate/severe communication disability displayed the reverse pattern. Communication-related metacognitive knowledge was better for observable communication problems. No clear associations were found between injury and demographic variables and communication-related metacognitive knowledge at each time point.