Helping people with aphasia have better conversations
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Helping people with aphasia have better conversations: which therapy works best and for who?
IRAS ID
124176
Contact name
Suzanne Beeke
Contact email
Research summary
Helping people with aphasia have better conversations: which therapy works best and for who?\nAphasia is a difficulty with using and understanding language. Long term, aphasia can lead to social isolation and a reduced quality of life for the person with aphasia and their close family. Conversation partner training, a therapy used to improve conversation skills in partners of people with aphasia, is effective. It commonly uses real-life examples of an individual’s conversations to educate and facilitate behaviour change, often via video feedback, and is also known as conversation therapy. There is growing evidence that a person with aphasia can also benefit from conversation therapy. Working within the context of intended use (conversations) may improve a person with aphasia’s use of communication strategy in everyday conversations. Such generalisation has been problematic for out-of context communication strategy training programmes. To date no one has directly compared how effective conversation therapy is versus ‘Communication Strategy Training’ at improving a person with aphasia’s communication strategy use in everyday conversations. Nor is it clear why some people with aphasia benefit more from conversation therapy than others.\nMy Stroke Association funded MPhil/PhD project (TSA JRTF 2012/01) will compare the effectiveness of six weeks of ‘Better Conversations with Aphasia Therapy’ to six weeks ‘Communication Strategy Training’. Six dyads (a person with aphasia at least 6 months post stroke and their conversation partner) will be recruited from South East England NHS speech and language therapy departments. Dyads will receive 24 weekly home visits consisting of: six sessions of Better Conversation with Aphasia Therapy or Communication Strategy Training, a four-week gap and then six sessions of the alternate therapy. Four assessment sessions before, between and after each intervention will (a) measure changes in wellbeing and communication strategy use and (b) profile language & cognition, to explore how these may effect therapy outcomes.\nThis project will not only improve knowledge about how a person with aphasia best learns and uses communication strategies in their everyday conversations; but also about which people with aphasia may benefit most. It is important because better conversations mean a better quality of life for the person with aphasia and their conversation partner(s).\n
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/EE/0242
Date of REC Opinion
21 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion