Interpersonal processes among people with dementia: An application of Systemic Functional Linguistics

Little is known about how people with dementia, in spite of their linguistic and cognitive impairments, build and maintain relationships with other people with dementia. This qualitative study investigates how people with dementia (n=5) use linguistic resources to construct their roles and relationships with other people with dementia in a) talk about others and b) talk with each other. Naturalistic conversations between the participants and also between each participant and the researcher are analyzed using Systemic Functional Linguistics. Results of the study and implications are discussed

The thorny issue of choosing outcome measures for aphasia therapy trials: A comparison of discourse and aphasia battery outcomes following Multi-modality and Constraint Induced aphasia therapy

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Staging casual conversations for people with dementia

Social isolation is a key concern for individuals with dementia in long-term care. A possible solution is to promote social interaction between residents. A first step toward facilitating positive relationships between residents with dementia is to understand the mechanisms behind their interactions with each other, and also how their relationships with each other are built through such interactions. Drawing on casual conversations between residents in a special care unit for dementia, this paper uses systemic functional linguistics to examine how people with dementia use language to enact and construct their role-relations with each other. Results suggest people with dementia are able and willing conversationalists. However, factors such as the extent of communication breakdown and compatibility of the interlocutors may influence whether positive relations develop or not. Casual conversation is suggested to be a promising activity to encourage positive interpersonal processes between individuals with dementia in residential care

Memories and identities in conversation with dementia

This chapter uses tools from Systemic Functional Linguistics to analyze how two women with dementia share autobiographical memories in conversation. Dialogic interaction is fundamental to human experience, and the sharing of memories is in essence a process of dialogic sense-making. Shared autobiographical stories are part of the dialogic construction and projection of public identities. Autobiographical talk in the conversation analyzed here is sketchy in terms of experiential detail, but rich in appraisal; it is used to construct positive past identities that reflect on present selves. In addition, identity projection and evaluative stances are dynamically adjusted in light of the conversation partner’s reactions, which points to intact dialogic sense-making skills in the presence of moderate dementia

Applying systemic functional linguistics to conversations with dementia: The linguistic construction of relationships between participants

Social isolation in dementia is a growing concern as the incidence and prevalence of dementing conditions is on the rise in many societies. Positive social interactions, which foster the construction and enactment of positive interpersonal relationships and therefore positive discursive identities, make an important contribution to emotional well-being. In this article, we investigate how two women diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer's type use language to relate to each other and two visiting graduate students. We use Systemic Functional Linguistics as an analytical framework, specifically investigating the use of vocatives and naming, and conversational moves and exchanges

Time for change : Results of a national survey of SLP practice in CALD aphasia rehabilitation

This study investigated aphasia rehabilitation practices for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations via a national survey of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in Australia. It also investigated the perceived levels of knowledge, skills, education, confidence and satisfaction of these SLPs when working with CALD populations. Respondents (n = 73) reported having limited knowledge, skills, education, confidence and satisfaction levels when it came to providing aphasia assessment and intervention for CALD populations. Reported challenges and areas for improvement included the limited availability of CALD assessment and intervention materials, and the limitations in clinical guidelines and information about assessment and intervention procedures. Such issues were reported over a decade ago, yet our findings suggest limited improvement. Increased attention from universities, SLP departments and peak bodies is urgently required – and suggested by SLPs themselves – if the quality of service provision for CALD populations in aphasia rehabilitation is to improve, and disparities between CALD and non-CALD services are to be addressed

Communicative effectiveness of pantomime gesture in people with aphasia

Background: Human communication occurs through both verbal and visual/motoric modalities. Simultaneous conversational speech and gesture occurs across all cultures and age groups. When verbal communication is compromised, more of the communicative load can be transferred to the gesture modality. Although people with aphasia produce meaning-laden gestures, the communicative value of these has not been adequately investigated. Aims: To investigate the communicative effectiveness of pantomime gesture produced spontaneously by individuals with aphasia during conversational discourse. Methods & Procedures: Sixty-seven undergraduate students wrote down the messages conveyed by 11 people with aphasia that produced pantomime while engaged in conversational discourse. Students were presented with a speech-only, a gesture-only and a combined speech and gesture condition and guessed messages in both a free description and a multiple-choice task. Outcomes & Results: As hypothesized, listener comprehension was more accurate in the combined pantomime gesture and speech condition as compared with the gesture- or speech-only conditions. Participants achieved greater accuracy in the multiple-choice task as compared with the free-description task, but only in the gesture only condition. The communicative effectiveness of the pantomime gestures increased as the fluency of the participants with aphasia decreased. Conclusions & Implications: These results indicate that when pantomime gesture was presented with aphasic speech, the combination had strong communicative effectiveness. Future studies could investigate how pantomimes can be integrated into interventions for people with aphasia, particularly emphasizing elicitation of pantomimes in as natural a context as possible and highlighting the opportunity for efficient message repair