Week Nine

Question 1

How might functional communication be assessed?

Answer 1

• Discourse or conversation analysis
• Narrative perspective (story retell, personal generation)
• Ratings scales of interactions (PWA and conversation partner)

*However these can be time consuming

But part of qualitative observations during an assessment and treatment phases

Question 2

What are four ways discourse/conversation can play a role in intervention?

Answer 2

1. The focus of therapy is ON discourse (improve turn taking)
2. Discourse provides the CONTEXT of therapy IN which specific aspects of language can be practiced (Improve lexical retrieval in role-play of service encounter)
3. Specific aspects of language are being targeted FOR the outcome of eventual use in discourse (work on word retrieval in single-picture naming task measuring generalization story retell procedure)
4. Discourse provides the medium through which psycho social consequences of language impairment can be managed (promote self-esteem in a group setting using life stories)

Question 3

What are some ways to teach discourse/conversation?

Answer 3

• Overt teaching of concepts

-Conversation level strategies with conversation partner

-Personal narratives

-Self monitoring tasks

• Story retell and discussion