Enhanced patient involvement in Swedish aphasia intervention

ABSTRACT

The present article is a case study in which participation is investigated in terms of the use of interactional practices that enhance the involvement of a man with severe aphasia in activities that aim to capture his and his wife’s experiences of everyday communication, and their views of his speech and language intervention. Five practices are identified: 1) collaborative telling, 2) formulations, 3) yes/no questions, 4) declaratives and 5) hint-and-guess strategies. It is demonstrated how participants’ (wife, a speech and language pathologist, and two research assistants) use of these practices are beneficial for making the viewpoints of the man with aphasia come across, despite his communication difficulties. Results are discussed in light of the importance of finding ways to make patients influence their own intervention, both in terms of a raised awareness of facilitative interactional practices and of activities such as interviews and retrospection sessions with patients and their significant others.

KEYWORDS:

• Aphasia
• conversation analysis
• participation
• patient involvement
• retrospection

Acknowledgments

We would particularly like to thank Olle, Eva and Olle’s speech and language therapist, and our two research assistants. We are also very grateful to our peers in the Nordic Network of Interaction Studies on Communication Impairment (NISCI), who have provided us with valuable feedback in data sessions and on earlier versions of this article. Finally, we are indebted to our co-author, friend and colleague, Professor Jan Anward, who sadly passed away before this article was entirely completed. His contributions to the article, along with his mentorship during the research project of which this article is a part, have been invaluable.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council, VR, grant no. 2010–1440.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council, VR, grant no. 2010–1440.