Social Communication Julie Brunings, MS, CCC-SLP Juli Rosenzweig, MS, CCC-SLP

Communication Competence “The ability to demonstrate knowledge of the communication behavior socially appropriate to a given situation.” Larson, Backlund, Redmond, and Barbour (1978)

Pragmatics “Pragmatics is the study of relationships between language behavior and the contexts in which it is used.” Davis & Wilcox (1985)

Social Communication Research Clinical Psychology Neuropsychology Speech Pathology Linguistic/Sociolinguistics Education

Health Care Professionals involved in Social Communication Speech Language Pathologists Clinical Psychologists Occupational Therapists Physical Therapists Physicians Social Workers

Cognitive Changes and Effects on Social Communication Decreased attention Decreased verbal fluency Decreased short term memory Decreased organization Slowed information processing Difficulty staying on topic Difficulty getting to the point Repetition of ideas, loss of purpose of topic Disorganized discourse Slow rate of speech

Pragmatic Model Non-verbal communication Communication in context Message repair Cohesiveness of narrative Ehrlich & Sipes (1985)

Non-verbal Communication Facial expression Posture Eye contact Gestures Paralinguistic features — Vocal intensity — Prosody — Fluency

Communication in Context Topic initiation Topic maintenance Turn taking Awareness of social context

Message Repair Awareness of communication breakdown Consideration of listener needs Repair strategies — Ability to revise message for listener comprehension

Cohesiveness of Narrative Sequencing of information Concise Use of cohesive ties Use of spatial and temporal concepts

Treatment Approaches Provide feedback regarding social communication behaviors — Videotape — Verbal feedback — Predetermined signal Role play Group therapy Work closely with rehab team