Joint productions as a conversational strategy in aphasia

To address the longstanding question of the conversational ability of persons with aphasia, this study investigated the spontaneous occurrence of a specific type of conversational collaboration, joint production, that is known to occur in the conversation of ordinary speakers. A person with aphasia and his wife videorecorded eight of their naturally occurring conversations. These conversations were analysed and three types of joint productions were identified: word search, turn completion and appendor production. Additional sequential analysis revealed the linguistic, paralinguistic and contextual resources available to the interactants in designing their joint production. Results showed that, despite the presence of aphasia, this couple was able to successfully employ joint production as an interactive technique leading to conversational success. Implications of this study are discussed relative to the understanding of communicative ability of persons with aphasia and how aphasia is diagnostically and therapeutically approached.