TY - JOUR
T1 - What’s on your mind? Conversation topics chosen by people with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for communication boards
AU - Fried-Oken, Melanie
AU - Daniels, Darlene
AU - Ettinger, Olivia
AU - Mooney, Aimee
AU - Noethe, Glory
AU - Rowland, Charity
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Purpose: Conversational topics chosen by a group of adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for personalized communication board development were examined. The patient-generated themes commonly selected are presented to guide treatment planning and communication board development. Method: Communication boards were created for 109 adults as part of a larger research project. One autobiographical topic that each participant would enjoy discussing multiple times was represented on each communication board with 16 pictures and word labels. For this review, topics were collapsed into general themes through a consens us process and examined by gender and age. Results: Sixty unique conversational topics were identified from 109 participants and collapsed into 9 general themes: Hobbies, Family, Travel, Work, Home/Places I’ve Lived, Sports/Fitness, Religion, Animals, and World War II. Age and gender produced variations in themes chosen, though no significance in rank orders was found across groups. Conclusions: Topics selected by adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for communication boards resemble common conversational adult themes and do not center around basic needs or medical issues. Differences in gender and age for topic selection tend to be based on traditional roles. These general themes should be used when creating personalized communication boards for those who benefit from conversational aids.
AB - Purpose: Conversational topics chosen by a group of adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for personalized communication board development were examined. The patient-generated themes commonly selected are presented to guide treatment planning and communication board development. Method: Communication boards were created for 109 adults as part of a larger research project. One autobiographical topic that each participant would enjoy discussing multiple times was represented on each communication board with 16 pictures and word labels. For this review, topics were collapsed into general themes through a consens us process and examined by gender and age. Results: Sixty unique conversational topics were identified from 109 participants and collapsed into 9 general themes: Hobbies, Family, Travel, Work, Home/Places I’ve Lived, Sports/Fitness, Religion, Animals, and World War II. Age and gender produced variations in themes chosen, though no significance in rank orders was found across groups. Conclusions: Topics selected by adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for communication boards resemble common conversational adult themes and do not center around basic needs or medical issues. Differences in gender and age for topic selection tend to be based on traditional roles. These general themes should be used when creating personalized communication boards for those who benefit from conversational aids.
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U2 - 10.1044/2015_AJSLP-14-0057
DO - 10.1044/2015_AJSLP-14-0057
M3 - Article
C2 - 25835511
AN - SCOPUS:84929327177
SN - 1058-0360
VL - 24
SP - 272
EP - 280
JO - American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
JF - American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology
IS - 2
ER -