Key wording practices in three aphasia conversation groups: a preliminary study

ABSTRACT

Background: When facilitating an aphasia group conversation, many facilitators engage in key wording or the action of writing down brief notes on the conversation. Though available sources provide general information about key wording and its benefits, no observational, interaction-oriented studies of key wording currently exist. Cognitive ethnography (CE), a trans-disciplinary field which examines how human beings create and engage in complex activity, was selected as the guiding paradigm for this study.

Aim: The aim of this preliminary, qualitative study was to examine and document the process of key wording as it occurs in three aphasia conversation groups.

Method and Procedure: We reviewed fifteen hours of footage of three aphasia conversation groups (Sites A, B, and C) several times, focusing on segments of interaction in which key wording took place. Tanith (Site A), Leo (Site B), and Adelaide (Site C) were the facilitators we observed. As we noted patterns of behavior in the groups’ use of key wording, we wrote a series of memoranda to record our developing understandings of the key wording process. We completed a cycle of writing and comparing the ideas expressed in the memoranda against the data numerous times. We employed several verification procedures, namely, triangulation, member checking, and lamination.

Outcomes and Results: All three groups engaged in key wording many times during each session. The groups we observed used systems composed of different elements to engage in key wording. One group relied on distribution of tasks across participants in that the facilitator attended to other tasks related to managing the interaction while a co-facilitator provided individual key wording support to group members with auditory comprehension deficits. In another group, the facilitator produced a log of the conversation on a sequence of pages located in the middle of the table, where all group members could see them. Finally, the facilitators and members of the third group collaboratively created graphic organizers on a white board which was located in the front of the room.

Conclusion: In the three groups we observed in this study, key wording was a routine process which involved the distribution of tasks across participants and the use of external devices. The available interactional data suggest that the inscriptions facilitators produce help group members with aphasia comprehend various local and global aspects of ongoing conversation.

KEYWORDS:

• Aphasia
• group therapy
• facilitation
• key wording

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary materials

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