Traumatic brain injury (TBI) results from an external force, causing impairments to social communication between loved ones. Individuals with TBI experience word-finding, poor turn-taking, disinhibition, and repetitiveness. TBIconneCT is a 10-week manualized telerehabilitation program from Australia, shown to produce significant gains in social communication behaviors. Our first aim addressed whether the delivery of the North American version of TBIconneCT via Telehealth videoconferencing improves communication awareness and confidence in the large group context. Our second aim addressed whether the program reduces negative communication behaviors and increases collaborative communication features. Participants engaged in collaborative video review in large group, discussing reactions to pre-developed, contrasting examples of effective and ineffective conversations. Large-group portions of session videos were examined qualitatively through qualitative content analysis and reflexive thematic analysis. Qualitative content analyses identified value in sharing experiences with other individuals with TBI, recognition of communication breakdowns, metacognitive discussions of repairs and preempting breakdowns, the value of peer feedback, and partners identified the value of seeing other individuals with TBI to help put their partner’s behaviors into context. Reflexive analysis indicated that large group interactions created a sense of shared experience, better recognition of communication breakdowns, increased repairs and self-regulation, and the value of peer feedback.
