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Abstract
The aim of this study is to investigate the occurrence of elderspeak in a Swedish context and to describe its characteristics. Elderspeak refers to adjustments made in communication with elderly people; adjustments similar to those made in interaction with infants. Previous findings show that adjustments of communication are made within several linguistic domains, and are a part of the communicative environment of elderly people. Five people working in different forms of geriatric institutions participated in this study, and data consist of recordings of interactions between caregivers and residents (without dementia) and interactions between caregivers and colleagues. The recordings were transcribed and analyzed by means of perceptual, semantic and acoustic analyses. The findings demonstrate that caregivers, to a varying extent, adjusted their communication within several linguistic domains. The adjustments were mainly made within the prosodic domain, but there were also adjustments made within other language domains.
Acknowledgements
We thank the participating staff and residents in the included institutions. The procedures followed when carrying out this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee of human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 1983.