"By the Way" … How Persons With Aphasia and Their Communication Partners Initiate New Topics of Conversation.

"By the Way"… How Persons With Aphasia and Their Communication Partners Initiate New Topics of Conversation. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2019 Sep 06;:1-18 Authors: Leaman MC, Edmonds LA Abstract Purpose The ability to initiate new topics of conversation is a basic skill integral to communicative independence and agency that is susceptible to breakdown in aphasia (Barnes, Candlin, & Ferguson, 2013), yet this discourse skill has received little research attention. Healthy adults (HAs) follow 3 established patterns of structural organization to cue the conversation partner when an utterance is intended to initiate a new topic (Schegloff & Sacks, 1973; Svennevig, 1999). In addition, speakers have the option to use these mechanisms of topic initiation (TI) individually or in conjunction with one another. Occasionally, speakers do not follow these conversational macrostructure expectations, in which case TI occurs abruptly, referred to as a noncoherent TI (NC-TI; Mentis & Prutting, 1991). Understanding how TI is disrupted by aphasia requires foundational knowledge regarding the relative use/combined use of TI mechanisms and NC-TI in HAs and persons with aphasia (PWAs). The purpose of this study is to investigate how PWAs and their conversation partners initiate new topics of conversation and to determine the relationship between the number of TI methods used and communicative success (CS) in persons with mild aphasia (PWA-Mild) ...
Source: American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Am J Speech Lang Pathol Source Type: research