Social Communication and Traumatic Brain Injury: A Consumer’s Guide

This guide was created by Margaret A. Struchen, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Dept. of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Baylor College of Medicine, Research Scientist, TIRR Memorial Hermann. Download the full PDF to find the following content:

• How can social communication be affected by TBI?
• How do changes in social communication affect outcome after TBI?
• What kinds of treatments are available to help improve social communication?
• What can I do to work on social communication in my home and community?

Here is an excerpt of this guide:

Introduction

What is social communication?

Social communication involves sending and receiving messages to and from others.

• Social communication involves being able to understand others and the meaning of what they communicate to you. It also involves being able to express yourself with the meaning you intend to communicate to them.

Social communication includes many skills.

• These skills can be verbal (the words that you say) or nonverbal (how the words are said). In fact, how something is said can be more important than what is said. Some examples of social communication skills include:
  • Starting conversations
  • Staying on topic
  • Changing conversation topic
  • Choosing topics of conversation
  • Asking for clarification
  • Voice tone
  • Gestures
  • Facial expressions
  • Rate of speech
  • and many more…

Social communication can change depending on the situation.

• In addition to verbal and nonverbal skills, the specific context in which the communication is taking place must be considered. That is, a person needs to adjust how they communicate depending on the situation in which they are involved and the persons with whom they are talking. For example, the communication style you use when talking with an employer during a job interview will likely be very different than that used when talking with friends at a party.

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