Treatment of aphasia through family member training

• DOI: 10.1080/02687030444000408
• Publication Date: 2007-06-25T04:54:19Z
• Authors: Nina Simmons-Mackie; Kevin Kearns; Gail Potechin
• Keywords: 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine

Background: Studies describing communication between people with aphasia and family members have suggested that family members are not always skilled communication partners. For example, spouses or significant others sometimes adopt conversational strategies that do not facilitate communication with their aphasic loved one. Therefore, management of aphasia should address the communication skills of regular communication partners in order to maximize communication with individuals with aphasia.Aims: This study was designed to provide communication training to the wife of a man with aphasia in order to reduce the occurrence of her behaviors identified as “nonfacililative.” Nonfacilitative behaviors of the wife included spouse interruptions, convergent questions and negative teaching.Methods & Procedures: A single subject multiple baseline design examined the effects of training on the occurrence of three nonfacilitative behaviors across several conditions (spontaneous conversation in the clinic, discussion ...