A Set of Observational Measures for Rating Support and Participation in Conversation Between Adults with Aphasia and Their Conversation Partners

Abstract

Conversation partners of individuals with aphasia, including health care professionals, families, and others, play a role that is as important for communication as the language disorder suffered by individuals with aphasia. Two complementary measures designed to capture elements of conversation between adults with aphasia and their speaking conversation partners have been developed. The first measure provides an index of the conversation partner’s skill in providing conversational support. The second provides an index of the level of participation in conversation by the person with aphasia. This article describes the development of the measures, including preliminary psychometric data, and discusses applications.

Keywords:

• aphasia
• competence
• conversation
• conversation partners
• measurement tools
• social approach