Language exercises for dinner: Aspects of aphasia management in family settings

• Published in: Aphasiology 2004-12, Vol.18 (12), p.1135-1160
• Main Authors: Bauer, Angelika, Kulke, Florian
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0268-7038; 1464-5041
• DOI: 10.1080/02687030444000570

Background: The introduction of didactic activities into the aphasic family's everyday interaction is a known aspect of the management of aphasia, and it is also known to be problematic, since didactic activities tend to entail tension and interactive stress. Therefore many therapists may discourage aphasic families from language exercising without professional guidance. However, systematic analyses of comprehensive sets of data documenting language exercises in aphasic families have previously not been available. Aims: This study aims at the analysis of one instance of interactively realised aphasia management, thus broadening the empirical basis of a social approach to aphasia therapy and counselling. It presents a detailed insight into structural and social aspects of language exercises within informal contexts: How are these activities organised? Why do some of them entail tension while others do not? Is "improvement of aphasia" the only function they strive to fulfil? Methods & Procedures: A corpus of 21 hours of video recordings of 10 aphasic families' informal conversations is analysed. The procedure of identifying, describing, and analysing sequences of exercising follows the principles of the qualitative paradigm of Conversation Analysis. Outcomes & Results: In three of the ten families exercising is a relevant activity. In these cases, the exercises draw on an interactive pattern known from institutional teaching and therapy. Dealing exclusively with single words (naming and repeating), the Request-Response-Evaluation pattern is imported and adapted to the conditions of informal talk. The face-threatening potential of exercising in informal contexts appears to be closely linked to the way the adaptation of this format is actually realised. Here the determining structural factors are the positioning of the sequence in the ongoing talk, and the initiation and contextualisation techniques employed. In our corpus, type and severity of aphasia do not emerge as factors predicting either frequencies or formal aspects of language exercises. Conclusions: Families engaging in language-exercising sequences, and those who do not, appear to have different orientations in adapting to aphasia: Exercising can express the family's orientation towards the restoration of linguistic competence as a joint project. Confined to private situations, collaboratively agreed upon and accomplished, exercises may lose their face-threatening potential. Language exercises can a