Learning from the Talk of Persons with Dementia, 1st ed. 2020 A Practical Guide to Interaction and Interactional Research The Language of Mental Health Series

This book offers an in depth analysis of the interactional challenges that arise due to various dementias and in a variety of social contexts. By assessing conversations between persons with dementia and their family members, caregivers, and clinicians, it shares insights into both the language and actions selected by the participants. Using several different research methods, authors highlight competencies and areas of struggle, as well as choices that ease interactions along with those that seem to complicate them. Each chapter provides practical strategies to help readers better navigate day-to-day interactions with persons with dementia. The book is part of a continuing effort to offer guidance and hope to those for whom such conversations have become part of their daily lives. It presents concrete recommendations for specific groups such as family members, caregivers, and clinicians; it will also be of interest to researchers in the field of dementia and early career scholars interested in the methodologies discussed.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: The Talk of Persons with Dementia: What Can It Tell Us?.- Chapter 2. Dementia, Etiologies, and Implications on Communication.- Chapter 3. Challenges in Collecting Real-World Dementia Discourse.- Chapter 4. Why Use Interactional Data to Better Understand the Effects of Dementia?.- Part II: Learning from the Talk of Persons with Dementia: Practical Steps for Doing and Applying Linguistic and Social Interactional Research.- Chapter 5. Signposts, Guideposts, and Stalls: Pragmatic and Discourse Markers in Dementia Discourse.- Chapter 6. Making Sense of Syntactic Error in Conversations between Persons with Dementia and their Non-Impaired Co-Participants.- Chapter 7. Foregrounding Competence in Interaction with a Person with Dementia: Co-Participant Responses to Disordered Talk.- Chapter 8. Meaningfulness at the Intersection of Knowledge and Environmental Objects: Investigating Interactions in Art Galleries and Residences Involving Persons with Dementia and Their Carers.- Chapter 9. Disagreements in Assessment Sequences with Persons Diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia.- Chapter 10. Dementia and the Life Course: Examining Cognitive Decline in a Slowly Progressing Degenerative Illness.- Chapter 11. Public and Private Spaces in Residential Care for Older People.- Part III: Keeping the Conversation Going.- Chapter 12. Conclusion: Keeping the Conversation Going.

Trini Stickle is Assistant Professor of English at Western Kentucky University, USA. She chiefly publishes on the linguistic and interactional competencies of persons with dementia and autism. Additionally, she creates curricula using US dialect data from the Dictionary of American Regional English for linguistic, literature, and history courses.

Offers readers a better understanding of the interactional challenges posed by dementia

Provides practical strategies to help readers better navigate their day-to-day interactions with persons with dementia

Shares insights into both the language and actions selected by participants