Investigating communication support strategies as ‘micro-interventions’:: A conceptual-methodological framework applying realist evaluation and relevance theory

Communication Partner Training is widely applied in speech and language therapy practice, premised on the idea that communication support strategies can optimise conversations involving persons with communication disabilities. The pragmatic mechanisms by which these communication support strategies ‘work’ in the moment of the conversation, remain under-theorised. We present a conceptual-methodological framework applying realist evaluation (Pawson & Tilley, 1997) and using relevance theory (Sperber & Wilson 1986/1995) as the ‘theory engine’ of the evaluation. We situates communicatio support strategies as ‘micro-interventions’, that is, interventions that occur in the complex social reality of conversation and affect the outcome of the unfolding conversation between a person with a communication disability and their communication partner, and the cognitive environment of both interlocutors. The theory-driven approach proposed provides a robust means through which to postulate the mechanisms by which communication support strategies work (that is how and why they work) within and across conversational contexts. A relevance-driven realist evaluation has the potential to generate explanatory accounts of communication support strategies which are both comparable across clinical populations and, crucially, empirically testable.