Investigating the ‘supported conversation’ intervention technique: a study of interactions between health care professionals and people with aphasia

Overview

This research investigates communication between people with aphasia after stroke and the speech and language therapists caring for them. Aphasia is a condition characterized by either partial or total loss of the ability to communicate verbally or using written words. Speech and language therapists often use an intervention technique known as Supported Conversation for Persons with Aphasia (SCA) as part of therapy. This technique involves facilitating comprehension and expression for the person with aphasia via the use of 'communication ramps', e.g. pictures, writing, gesture. Research shows that SCA can improve the communicative skills of people with aphasia, but this research fails to specify the linguistic and sequential structures used in SCA. Thus, speech and language therapists use SCA because they know it improves communication, but find it difficult to explain, transfer, or translate their ability to conduct a successful interaction.

This study will use the methodology of Conversation Analysis, a robust tool for investigating the linguistic-sequential structures used in conversation, to conduct a pilot study of naturally-occurring therapeutic interventions using SCA techniques. Participants will be recruited from patients in the Adults' Speech & Language Therapy department in the LTHT, and be video-recorded during one of their regularly-scheduled therapy sessions. The research will pay special attention to the linguistic structures employed by the speech and language therapists as well as the people with aphasia in order to address a gap in knowledge about which linguistic and sequential structures are used in SCA, and which (if any) are avoided. This information can then be compared to what is known about the linguistic and sequential structures generally deployed in typical, non-impaired talk-in-interaction in order to 1) translate the findings to clinicians with different specialisms to maximise the person with aphasia's right to participate in decision-making about their care, and 2) develop linguistically-informed methods of evaluating the efficacy of the SCA intervention.