Selective characteristics of narrative discourse in head-injured and normal adults

Much controversy surrounds the language production abilities of traumatically head-injured adults. In this study, the narrative skills of head-injured and normal adults are examined and compared on the amount, rate, and distribution of information in a picture description task. The head-injured adults, all of whom were at least six months postinjury, were found to be similar to the normals in the amount of pertinent content expressed, narrative length, and rate of speech in the given narrative task; however, they were found to be significantly slower in the rate of information imparted. This decreased efficiency of communication was related to the head-injured adults' lengthier and slower verbal outputs. They required relatively more words and time to convey the essential information. Finally, several clinical implications are raised concerning the use of narrative tasks in head-injured rehabilitation.