Narrative Discourse Characteristics Persian Speaking Adults

During human life, language is important in social interaction and speech and language pathologists play a significant role in preservation and promotion of speech and communication in people. In adulthood, increasing age and particularly aging changes most cognitive functions that have impact on the ability of receptive and expressive language. As communication and discourse in aging can be improved by obtaining information on changing discourse features, studying language in different ages is crucial.
This research is a descriptive-analytic cross-sectional study. In this study, 91 adult narrative discourses, with the age ranges of 19 to 74 years, divided into four age groups. First, each participant filled out personal information and consent form to participate in the research. Then cognitive assessment using Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) screening test was conducted. Finally, their capabilities of narrative discourse were evaluated using Persian narrative discourse assessment task. In order to check the normality of the data, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used. For comparison of narrative discourse in different age groups, ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used (for cohesion and coherence respectively).
Both cohesion and coherence variables were significantly different among aging group and all three other groups (p Results of the present study indicate that discourse abilities are affected by age and especially by aging. Therefore, it is necessary for speech and language pathologists to consider the cognitive and linguistic demands in their clinical applications.