Webinar Summary: Cognitive Linguistic Difficulties in Adults with Long COVID

Louise Cummings, Professor of Clinical Linguistics at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in China, presented results and implications of her research. She surveyed the nature of cognitive-linguistic difficulties by assessing language communication skills of 92 adults with Long COVID Syndrome, and healthy adults. Tasks included describing pictures, recalling information, discourse production and re-constructing a well-known fairy tale.

Using the examples of case reports, Louise described manifestations of cognitive-linguistic difficulties, referred to as “brain fog”, which were reported by the participants. The COVID patients experienced word-finding difficulties, difficulty in following conversations, problems with reading and writing, impaired recall of information, and problems with speech fluency. Louise explained how the reported cognitive-linguistic difficulties had an impact on the participants´ ability to return to work and overall quality of their life.

In the webinar, you will learn more about:

• the definition of Long COVID given by WHO
• the type of cognitive-linguistic difficulties experienced by the participants
• the tasks she used in her research
• the research findings and implications
• the impact of the cognitive-linguistic difficulties
• a new Long Covid survey

The webinar is available to the members in the Video section in the Member area.