Participant characteristics and observed support in conversations involving people with communication disorders

Abstract

Purpose: Communication partner training is an increasingly common approach to improve the possibilities for people with communication disorders to participate in everyday interaction. So far, though, little is known about what conversation partner characteristics might influence the ability to be a supportive partner in conversation. The current study explored possible associations between the observed skill to support a person with communication difficulties in conversation and the following characteristics of the conversation partner; executive function, inference ability, age, education level and relationship to the person with communication disorder. The impact of the aetiology of the communication difficulties was also explored.

Method: Thirty-five dyads participated: 23 people with aphasia along with 18 significant others and five enrolled nurses and 12 people with Parkinson’s disease along with 10 significant others and two enrolled nurses.

Result: Only tendencies of associations were found between observed skill to support conversation and executive function for the significant others and inference ability for the enrolled nurses.

Conclusion: Although type of activity involved in the conversation may be a key factor, the results indicate that executive function and ability to make mental inferences may matter for the ability to support a person with communication disorder in conversation.

Declaration of interest

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