Date of Award
Spring 2-7-2018
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
PhD Health Sciences
Department
Health and Medical Sciences
Advisor
Venugopal Balasubramanian, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Lawrence Weinberger, Ph.D.
Committee Member
Deborah R. Welling, Au.D.
Committee Member
Genevieve Pinto Zipp, Ed.D.
Keywords
Blast Traumatic Brain Injury, auditory processing, attention, inferencing, ambiguity, figurative language
Abstract
Our servicemen and women are facing challenges with reintegration into civilian life as noted by the high levels of homelessness, unemployment, and suicide. Behavioral aspects and PTSD have been the focus of these problems. There may be additional factors that negatively impact successful reintegration. There may be weaknesses in communication skills such as auditory processing deficits and higher-level language deficits secondary to blast exposure. Twelve veterans with history of blast exposure and six veteran controls were compared in areas of auditory processing, higher-level language skills (inferencing, ambiguity, figurative language), and attention, memory, and visual processing speed. Correlations with auditory processing and higher-level language and cognitive skills were also explored. Results demonstrated significance with attention (p = 0.001), time compressed sentences (p = 0.02), and for the veterans who wear not wearing their helmets at the time of blast exposure demonstrated additional significance with inferencing (p = 0.04), and auditory figure ground (p = 0.05). Weaknesses were noted with competing words (p = 0.08) and multiple meanings (p = 0.08). Strong and moderate correlations were observed with veterans who were not wearing their upgraded helmet at the time of blast exposure. Results suggest a need to include speech pathologists as part of the diagnostic team for our returning servicemen that were exposed to blasts, especially if they were not wearing their upgraded helmet at the time of exposure, so as to rule out any deficits with higher-level language skills, or auditory processing deficits.
Recommended Citation
Koebli, Judith R., "An Exploration of High Level Language Comprehension Deficits and the Factors Influencing Them Following Blast Exposure in Afghanistan and Iraq War Veterans" (2018). Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs). 2486.
https://scholarship.shu.edu/dissertations/2486
