"Can you speak English?": The effects of social communication impairment on the life of an adolescent with traumatic brain injury

During adolescence teenagers learn the rules of more sophisticated social interaction. For teenagers with traumatic brain injury (TBI) learning these rules is difficult because of the impairment to cognitive processes underlying social communication. In the case study presented in this paper, the social communication impairment experienced by a teenage girl with TBI was explored using semi-structured interviews with the adolescent, her mother, and a friend. Analysis revealed that communication breakdown wasa common consequence of the teenager's social communication impairment. Strategies to compensate for the communicationimpairment were used by her parents and friends to limit the extent of thecommunication breakdown, but no strategies were in place to improve the adolescent's social communication interactions. It is proposed that a greater focus on strategies to develop her social communication skillswould be beneficial, particularly as the adolescent becomes older and moves on from the protective environments of her home and school.