Abstract
Background: Many individuals with Huntington's disease experience reduced functioning in cognition, language and communication. Talking Mats is a visually based low technological augmentative communication framework that supports communication in people with different cognitive and communicative disabilities.
Aims: To evaluate Talking Mats as a communication tool for people in the later stages of Huntington's disease.
Methods & Procedures: Five individuals with Huntington's disease participated in the study. Three conditions were compared: unstructured communication, verbally structured communication, and communication using Talking Mats. The conversations were videotaped and analysed quantitatively and qualitatively.
Outcomes & Results: Talking Mats increased communicative effectiveness for all participants. Verbally structured conversation resulted in higher effectiveness than the unstructured counterpart and effectiveness differed depending on the type of conversational topic.
Conclusions & Implications: Talking Mats could be a valuable resource for people with Huntington's disease and their conversation partners. It could be used for social purposes, for understanding a person's opinions and for making decisions. Additional research is necessary in order to generalize the results to the population of individuals with Huntington's disease and to understand better the mechanisms behind the positive effects observed.
Acknowledgements
The study was part of a clinical project run by the Huntington team at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, The Association for Persons with Neurological Disabilities (NHR) in Västra Götaland, and the Ågrenska Foundation. The study also run in parallel with a developmental project about Talking Mats administered by DART—Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication and Assistive Technology, Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg, Centre for Communication in Southern Sweden (SÖK), and The Association for Persons with Intellectual Disability in Gothenburg (FUB). Both projects received financial support from the Swedish Inheritance Fund. The authors thank the participants, spouses and healthcare professionals who contributed to the study. include The Picture Communication Symbols © 1981–2009 by Mayer-Johnson LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Used with permission. Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.