Management of discourse in group therapy for aphasia

A qualitative study of group therapy for aphasia was undertaken in order to discover interaction patterns and discourse management strategies that help define "social" or "conversation" group therapy for aphasia. Specifically, an analysis of the discourse of clients and therapists was conducted to identify patterns across therapists and settings. Six group communication therapy sessions involving individuals with aphasia were videotaped and analyzed. Within the well-managed social group therapy sessions studied, a variety of discourse management features were identified, including establishing the feel of discourse equality, focusing on everyday communicative events and genres, employing multiple communication modes, mediating communication, calibrating corrections, aiding turn allocation, and judiciously employing teachable moments. The discourse patterns identified in these social conversation groups differ from discourse patterns associated with traditional impairment-focused therapy described in the aphasia literature.