1887
Volume 15, Issue 1
  • ISSN 1878-9714
  • E-ISSN: 1878-9722

Abstract

Abstract

This study suggests that the concept of proto-conversation may be used to describe and understand communication with people with late-stage dementia who have lost their abilities to produce verbal language. In the study, a multimodal conversation analytic method is used to analyze sequences of interactions between professional caregivers in an elderly care home and people with late-stage dementia. The study shows how minimal actions (shift of gaze directions, vocalizations or bodily movements) not instantly recognizable as intentional, communicative conduct, may be recognized and treated as communicative contributions by engaging the person living with dementia in proto-conversations. In such interactional sequences, the caregivers do not only turn the contributions of persons with dementia into actions through their responses, but they also treat the persons as agentive actors and position them as partners in interaction.

Available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/ps.23048.hyd
2024-01-18
2024-10-11
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/ps.23048.hyd.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1075/ps.23048.hyd&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Bateson, Mary Chaterine
    1979 “‘The epigenesis of conversational interaction’: A personal account of research development.” InBefore Speech. The beginnings of interpersonal communication, edited byMargaret Bullowa, 63–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Bruner, Jerome S.
    1985Child’s Talk. Learning to Use Language. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 10.1177/026565908500100113
    https://doi.org/10.1177/026565908500100113 [Google Scholar]
  3. Cekaite, Asta, and Lorenza Mondada
    (eds) 2020Touch in Social Interaction. Touch, Language, and Body. London: Routledge. 10.4324/9781003026631
    https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003026631 [Google Scholar]
  4. Croteau, Claire, and Guylaine Le Dorze
    2006 “Overprotection, ‘speaking for’, and conversational participation: A study of couples with aphasia.” Aphasiology201: 327–336. 10.1080/02687030500475051
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030500475051 [Google Scholar]
  5. Clark, Herbert
    1994 “Managing problems in speaking.” Speech Communication151: 243–250. 10.1016/0167‑6393(94)90075‑2
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-6393(94)90075-2 [Google Scholar]
  6. Ekström, Anna, Ali Reza Majlesi, and Lars-Christer Hydén
    2022 “Assisted eating as a communicative activity: A framework of joint attention and co-ordinated embodied actions.” Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders141: 79–105. 10.1558/jircd.21255
    https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.21255 [Google Scholar]
  7. Goffman, Erving
    1981 “Replies and responses.” InForms of Talk, Erving Goffman, 5–77. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Grice, Paul
    1975 “Logic and Conversation.” InSyntax and Semantic. Vol 3: Speech Acts, edited byPeter Cole and Jerry Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press. 10.1163/9789004368811_003
    https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004368811_003 [Google Scholar]
  9. Guendouzi, Jacqueline, and Nicole Müller
    2002 “Defining Trouble-Sources in Dementia: Repair Strategies and Conversational Satisfaction in Interactions with an Alzheimer’s Patient.” InInvestigations in Clinical Linguistics, edited byFay Windsor, Louise Kelly and Nigel Hewlett, 15–30. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Hamilton, Heidi
    1994Conversations with an Alzheimer’s patient. An interactional sociolinguistic study. New York: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511627774
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511627774 [Google Scholar]
  11. 2019Language, Dementia and Meaning Making Navigating Challenges of Cognition and Face in Everyday Life. London: Palgrave Macmillan. 10.1007/978‑3‑030‑12021‑4
    https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12021-4 [Google Scholar]
  12. 2020 “Pragmatics and dementia.” InDevelopmental and Clinical Pragmatics, edited byKlaus Schneider and Elly Ifantidou, 611–646. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. 10.1515/9783110431056‑021
    https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110431056-021 [Google Scholar]
  13. Hydén, Lars-Christer
    2011 “Non-verbal vocalizations, dementia and social interaction.” Communication and Medicine81: 135–144. 10.1558/cam.v8i2.135
    https://doi.org/10.1558/cam.v8i2.135 [Google Scholar]
  14. Hydén, Lars-Christer, Ali Reza Majlesi, and Anna Ekström
    2022 “Assisted eating in late-stage dementia: Intercorporeal collaboration.” Journal of Aging Studies611. 10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101000
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2022.101000 [Google Scholar]
  15. Kim, Esther, and Kathryn Bayles
    2007 “Communication in Late-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease: Relation to Functional Markers of Disease Severity.” Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly81: 43–52.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Kitwood, Tom
    1990 “The dialectics of dementia: With particular reference to Alzheimer’s disease.” Ageing & Society101: 177–196. 10.1017/S0144686X00008060
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X00008060 [Google Scholar]
  17. Linell, Per
    1998Approaching dialogue. Talk, interaction and contexts in dialogical perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. 10.1075/impact.3
    https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.3 [Google Scholar]
  18. Majlesi, Ali Reza, Anna Ekström, and Lars-Christer Hydén
    2022 “Transferring from wheelchair to bed: (Re)subjectifying and partner-positioning a person with late-stage dementia in the care task.” Qualitative Social Work211: 1185–1210. 10.1177/14733250221124216
    https://doi.org/10.1177/14733250221124216 [Google Scholar]
  19. Nilsson, Elin, Anna Ekström, and Ali Reza Majlesi
    2018 “Speaking for and about a spouse with dementia: A matter of inclusion or exclusion?” Discourse Studies201: 770–791. 10.1177/1461445618770482
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445618770482 [Google Scholar]
  20. Österholm, Johannes, and Christina Samuelsson
    2015 “Orally positioning persons with dementia in assessment meetings.” Ageing & Society351: 367–388. 10.1017/S0144686X13000755
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X13000755 [Google Scholar]
  21. Perkins, Lisa, Anne Whitworth, and Ruth Lesser
    1998 “Conversing in dementia: A conversation analytic approach.” Journal of Neurolinguistics111: 33–53. 10.1016/S0911‑6044(98)00004‑9
    https://doi.org/10.1016/S0911-6044(98)00004-9 [Google Scholar]
  22. Purves, Barbara
    2009 “The complexities of speaking for another.” Aphasiology231: 914–925. 10.1080/02687030802514946
    https://doi.org/10.1080/02687030802514946 [Google Scholar]
  23. Samuelsson, Christina, and Lars-Christer Hydén
    2011 “Intonational Patterns of Non-verbal Vocalizations in People with Dementia.” American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias261: 563–572. 10.1177/1533317511428152
    https://doi.org/10.1177/1533317511428152 [Google Scholar]
  24. Saxton, Judith, and Françoise Boller
    2006 ”Cognitive Functions in Severe Dementia.” InSevere dementia, edited byAlister Burns and Bengt Winblad, 43–49. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 10.1002/0470010568.ch4
    https://doi.org/10.1002/0470010568.ch4 [Google Scholar]
  25. Schegloff, Emanuel
    2007Sequence Organization in Interaction. A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Vol.I1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/CBO9780511791208
    https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208 [Google Scholar]
  26. Simmons-Mackie, Nina, and Misty Schultz
    2004 ““Speaking for Another”: The Management of Participant Frames in Aphasia.” American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology131: 114–127. 10.1044/1058‑0360(2004/013)
    https://doi.org/10.1044/1058-0360(2004/013) [Google Scholar]
  27. Tomasello, Michael, Malinda Carpenter, Josep Call, Tanya Behne, and Henrike Moll
    2005 “Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences281: 675–735. 10.1017/S0140525X05000129
    https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X05000129 [Google Scholar]
  28. Trevarthen, Colwyn
    2015 “Infant semiosis: The psycho-biology of action and shared experience from birth.” Cognitive Development361: 130–141. 10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.008
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.008 [Google Scholar]
  29. Yoo, Hyunjoo, Dale Bowman, and Kimbrough Oller
    2018 “The Origin of Protoconversation: An Examination of Caregiver Responses to Cry and Speech-Like Vocalizations.” Frontiers in Psychology91. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01510
    https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01510 [Google Scholar]
  30. Watson, Caroline, Helen Chenery, and Michelle Carter
    1999 “Analysis of trouble and repair in the natural conversations of people with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type.” Aphasiology131: 195–218. 10.1080/026870399402181
    https://doi.org/10.1080/026870399402181 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/ps.23048.hyd
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): dementia; late-stage dementia; multi-modality; proto-conversation; social interaction
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error