What Happens to Topics and Conversations When People With Aphasia Have Time to Repair Their Speaking Turns? A Systematic, Functional Investigation

People with aphasia may produce speech errors or pauses during speaking turns. A communication partner may choose to guess the person’s intended meaning, or may allow the person time to repair their turns (i.e., edited turns). The aim of this study was to understand the topic-related effects that occur when speakers without aphasia allow their partners with aphasia to complete their own repairs. We analyzed videos of 10 people with aphasia engaged in social conversations with communication partners. We identified and extracted “PWA-initiated segments” (PWA-IS). These segments begin with turns in which PWAs carry out repairs and introduce new topics (both actions occur in a single turn). PWA-ISes continue until the last turn about the topic is completed. We calculated descriptive statistics detailing the proportion of turns/words in each conversation represented by PWA-IS’s, as well as the range and mean of these proportions across conversations. This approach allowed us to understand how many of the turns in each conversation were dependent on the new topics introduced by people with aphasia when they were afforded time for self-expression during their edited utterances. On average, 35% of turns and 38% of words occurred during PWA-ISes. In general, substantial proportions of conversations we analyzed were related to topics introduced by people with aphasia during PWA-ISes. Edited turns initiate segments composed of topically-related turns, and these segments occupied large portions of the conversations we analyzed. Giving people with aphasia time to edit their own turns may thus play an important role in steering conversation toward the topics and interactional agendas that people with aphasia wish to pursue.