3,668
Views
39
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Can impairment-focused therapy change the everyday conversations of people with aphasia? A review of the literature and future directions

, , &
Pages 895-916 | Received 14 Oct 2011, Accepted 12 Mar 2012, Published online: 24 Apr 2012
 

Abstract

Background: The ultimate goal in any programme of aphasia rehabilitation is that behaviours targeted in therapy will generalise to everyday use for people with aphasia (PWA). The pervasiveness of conversation in everyday life has undoubtedly contributed to the recent interest in aphasiology regarding how we facilitate, and capture evidence of, change in conversation following therapy. Given the rich nature of conversation data, various analytical approaches have been utilised within impairment-focused therapy studies; however, much of this work has been carried out in isolation from other methodologies such as conversation analysis (CA)—a field which has historically concerned itself with conversation data. The result is a growing literature base which is dispersed in nature. For clinicians who are faced with the daily challenge of therapeutic management for a diverse population of PWA the literature on generalising therapy gains to everyday conversation may be too unwieldy to be of benefit to current clinical practice.

Aims: This paper aims to synthesise and critically review key papers from impairment-focused studies which have investigated the impact of therapy on the conversations of PWA. For the purposes of this review, conversation is defined as a dialogue between the person with aphasia and a conversation partner.

Main Contribution: First, the motivation to investigate conversation within aphasia assessment is discussed, with consideration of how conversation differs from, but ultimately complements, other forms of language assessment. Following this, five impairment therapy studies will provide a platform for discussion of methodological issues and analytical approaches relating to conversation data. Finally, consideration is given to how researchers and clinicians may build on current literature to develop the use of conversation as an outcome measure in aphasia intervention. Where appropriate, insights are drawn from interaction-focused therapy studies regarding the collection and analysis of conversation data.

Conclusions: There is emerging evidence that impairment-focused therapy can impact on the conversations of PWA. While these early findings are promising, investigations have been limited to naming therapies and the methods of data collection used have implications for ecological validity. Incorporating particular elements of interaction-focused approaches may help to inform data collection, investigations of therapy outcome, and issues of candidacy for specific treatments. Furthermore, combining therapeutic and analytical approaches is likely to be more closely akin to the clinical reality of aphasia intervention, where clinicians are likely to use all resources at their disposal in the rehabilitation of a speaker with aphasia.

Notes

1 POWERS (Herbert et al., Citation2008) uses conversation analysis concepts to quantify lexical retrieval in conversation and capture change in conversation with regards to word-finding, errors, turn-taking and repair.

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 53.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 386.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.