Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2-2021
Journal / Book Title
Brain sciences
Abstract
Discourse (a unit of language longer than a single sentence) is fundamental to everyday communication. People with aphasia (a language impairment occurring most frequently after stroke, or other brain damage) have communication difficulties which lead to less complete, less coherent, and less complex discourse. Although there are multiple reviews of discourse assessment and an emerging evidence base for discourse intervention, there is no unified theoretical framework to underpin this research. Instead, disparate theories are recruited to explain different aspects of discourse impairment, or symptoms are reported without a hypothesis about the cause. What is needed is a theoretical framework that would clarify the specific linguistic skills that create completeness, coherence, and complexity (i.e., richness) in discourse, and illuminate both the processes involved in discourse production and the reasons for breakdown. This paper reports a review and synthesis of the theoretical literature relevant to spoken discourse in aphasia discourse, and we propose a novel theoretical framework which unites these disparate sources. This framework is currently being tested as the foundation for Linguistic Underpinnings of Narrative in Aphasia (LUNA) treatment research. In this paper, we outline the novel framework and exemplify how it might be used to guide clinical practice and research. Future collaborative research is needed to develop this framework into a processing model for spoken discourse.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11020183
Montclair State University Digital Commons Citation
Dipper, Lucy; Marshall, Jane; Boyle, Mary; Hersh, Deborah; Botting, Nicola; and Cruice, Madeline, "Creating a Theoretical Framework to Underpin Discourse Assessment and Intervention in Aphasia" (2021). Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 150.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/communcsci-disorders-facpubs/150
Published Citation
Dipper, Lucy, Jane Marshall, Mary Boyle, Deborah Hersh, Nicola Botting, and Madeline Cruice. "Creating a theoretical framework to underpin discourse assessment and intervention in aphasia." Brain Sciences 11, no. 2 (2021): 183.
Included in
Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, Applied Linguistics Commons, Clinical Psychology Commons, Community Psychology Commons, Comparative and Historical Linguistics Commons, Developmental Psychology Commons, Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons, Language Description and Documentation Commons, Other Linguistics Commons, Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Commons, Speech and Hearing Science Commons, Speech Pathology and Audiology Commons, Typological Linguistics and Linguistic Diversity Commons