Enabling Better Conversations Between a Man With Aphasia and His Conversation Partner: Incorporating Writing Into Turn Taking

Abstract

This article reports an intervention in the conversations between a man with chronic aphasia, Barry, and his wife, Louise (both names are pseudonyms). Preintervention analysis revealed the potential of writing as a resource for turn construction. Intervention consisted of enabling Barry to use writing to produce more complete turns at talk, thereby increasing the likelihood of mutual understanding, and encouraging Louise to modify her responses to Barry’s turns and thus enhance his interactional potential. Quantitative analysis revealed that Barry significantly increased his use of writing after intervention, but there was no change in other trained strategies. Louise eradicated correct production sequences (designed to elicit the correct production of a word despite her knowing the target) but did not implement trained strategies. In conclusion, individually tailored input underpinned by Conversation Analysis principles can alter the conversational behavior of a person with aphasia. It appears easier for a conversation partner to reduce unhelpful behaviors than to adopt facilitatory strategies. Data are in British English.

We are very grateful to Barry and Louise (pseudonyms) for their enthusiastic participation in this study. Professor David Howard provided invaluable statistical advice and resources, for which we thank him. The analysis presented extends the work of three University College London masters students: Ellie Brooks, Vicki Edwards, and Juliet Summerscale. We thank them for their work on the counts reported here. Juliet Summerscale’s CA transcriptions were refined by the first author, who also produced the analysis.