Study enables more accurate language assessment of head-injured people

Study enables more accurate language assessment of head-injured people

A University of Queensland study will enable clinicians to make more accurate language ability assessments among people with head injuries.

Existing ability tests for people with head injuries do not always link language loss with cognitive functions such as memory and attention, according to the study's author Dr Fiona Hinchliffe.

Her PhD study with the University's Speech Pathology and Audiology Department identified the most useful language tests and showed attention was the main cognitive factor involved in using language at a higher level by head-injured people.

The study also identified core language problems facing people with a head injury.

"These can include difficulty in processing information requiring some inference, nuance or subtlety, accessing words and different word meanings and verbal expression," Dr Hinchliffe said.

"It is very difficult for people with head injuries to connect ideas and understand underlying meanings; for example, understanding a longer joke or a movie with an intricate plot."

The study showed that just as in the wider population, language and communication abilities varied greatly among people with head injuries.

"We need a database of communication abilities across different demographics. Without this, therapists can't make a highly accurate assessment of a person's language ability when he or she sustains a head injury," she said.

Dr Hinchliffe tested 25 people with serious head injuries and a control group with the same age, sex and educational profile for language ability.

The people with head injuries, aged between 18 and 40, were patients at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and had sustained their injuries from motor vehicle accidents or assaults.

For more information, contact Dr Fiona Hinchliffe (telephone 07 3397 8407).