If you or a loved one has recently experienced an acquired brain injury or received a progressive neurological disorder diagnosis, you may have been told about cognitive communication disorders. In the early stages of a life-changing diagnosis, there is so much to wrap your head around. There are so many things mentioned by caring doctors and allied health professionals that you can quickly get overwhelmed with information.
If amongst all of this, you’ve found yourself wondering what cognitive communication disorders are, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, our Speech Pathologists will share their knowledge and help you to discover the most important information you need to know about cognitive communication disorders.
What Are Cognitive Communication Disorders?
Cognitive communication disorders (also known as CCD’s) are acquired communication disorders stemming from difficulties in different cognitive processes. When we talk to others, we use a number of cognitive processes to maintain and participate in a conversation.
Cognitive processes include things like memory, attention, and executive function. We use memory to remember what has been said in a conversation and attention to maintain our focus on the conversation to follow along. Executive functioning helps us with impulse control and reasoning, to help us understand implicit messages (i.e. those not specifically said) and to determine whether our responses are appropriate or not. If an impairment occurs in any of these domains – even though they do not specifically impair our language – our ability to communicate with those around us will be impaired.
What Do Cognitive Communication Disorders Look Like?
Depending on the severity of the disorder, these changes can be subtle or difficult to spot. However, difficulties in any cognitive domain may impact communication and indicate a cognitive communication disorder.
These difficulties may look like (but are not limited to):
- Difficulties remaining on topic during conversation.
- Forgetting what is being talked about frequently.
- A person’s personality may change, in that they may become blunt, suddenly lack a sense of humour, or make impulsive or rude statements.
- Responses may be increasingly slow or irrelevant to the current conversation.
- Differences in paying attention in various environments (eg. Increased difficulties in louder environments).
- Reduced insight.
- Increased difficulties completing day-to-day tasks not due to physical restrictions.
- Increased difficulties following directions (especially those of increasing length).
- Difficulties making decisions, planning, or following directions.
- Stories may be difficult to follow and sequenced incorrectly.
What Causes Cognitive Communication Disorders?
As cognitive communication disorders can be caused by any impairment to cognitive function, there are a wide variety of causes of these disorders.
Common causes of cognitive communication disorders include (but are not limited to):
- Acquired Brain Injury
- Progressive neurological disorder (including Motor Neuron Disease, Parkinson’s Disease etc.)
- Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
- Stroke
- Tumour
- Right Hemisphere Disorder
How Can Speech Pathologists Help with Cognitive Communication Disorders?
Speech Pathologists can conduct assessments to determine the function of each cognitive domain and provide support to clients to rehabilitate function or use alternate supports to maximise function (e.g. Calendars, note-taking etc.). They also provide training to communication partners, so the client is as best supported both inside and outside the clinic room as possible.
Speech Pathology assessments are often functional to examine the real-world impacts of these disorders to maximise the positive impact of therapy on individuals.
We hope you found this guide to cognitive communication disorders helpful. If you or a loved one are experiencing a cognitive communication disorder and are looking for support in Australia, we’d recommend using the Speech Pathology Australia ‘Find a Speech Pathologist’ tool. It will help you to find a local Speech Pathologist who can support you to achieve your communication goals.