Investigation of the relationship between selective attention skills and speech understanding in traumatic brain injury individuals

Disorders that occur in individuals due to traumatic brain injury are an important health problem and can cause serious problems in language, speech and cognitive skills. One of the cognitive impairments commonly seen in traumatic brain injury is attention disorder. Attention disorder can significantly affect an individual's speech and language skills. In our study, the relationship between selective attention skills and speech understanding in individuals with traumatic brain injury was investigated. Thirty severe brain injury and 30 healthy participants between the ages of 18-60 were included in the study. The Aphasia Language Assessment Test and Stroop Test performances of the participants were compared and the relationship between them was examined. In addition, the relationship between the coma duration of the participants with traumatic brain injury and the two tests applied was examined. In line with the sample we selected as a result of our study, it was observed that the selective attention skills of the participants with traumatic brain injury had lower performance than healthy participants, and no statistically significant difference was found between traumatic brain injury and healthy participants in terms of auditory comprehension skills. In addition, it was observed that selective attention skill affected auditory comprehension skill. Finally, no relationship was found between coma duration and selective attention and auditory comprehension skills. In line with our results, it is thought that the inclusion of selective attention skills in the therapy programs of individuals with traumatic brain injury will positively affect the language and speech therapy process in these individuals.