Dogs and other metaphors: reflections on the influence of Mark Ylvisaker

Abstract

Mark Ylvisaker's death in 2009 marked the sad cessation of a prolific and rich discourse regarding what matters in brain injury rehabilitation. In this article, I reflect on how my own work has converged with and been influenced by this great thinker and doer. My own work, like Ylvisaker's, has been oriented toward finding contextually relevant ways of assessing and remediating communication and social impairments in people with severe traumatic brain injury. In this article, common themes between Ylvisaker's work and my own are explored, including the usefulness of pragmatic language theory, which helps clarify why context is important when determining whether language is appropriate or not, and also to help reveal where problems occur in the use of subtle, diplomatic, or inferred meanings. This article also reflects upon Ylvisaker's models for remediation and the extent to which these can be encompassed within (as well as shape) more traditional models of social skills training.