Elle McWilliam

• BSc Hons Speech & Language Science
• Spoken production in people with aphasia: what do individuals view as important?

Aphasia is an acquired language disorder, which commonly follows stroke. Individuals with aphasia often report difficulties with spoken production, for example, finding words, producing sentences, holding a conversation. This project investigated what individuals view as most important about their spoken production, helping to inform assessment and treatment by speech and language therapists. A thematic analysis of five spoken interviews was conducted. Themes identified included: ‘ability’, ‘support’, ‘social functions of speaking’ and ‘factors relating to what is important’. Within the interview, clients also completed a ranking task, rating activities along a scale from ‘important’ to ‘not important’. The relative importance of activities varied according to the severity of the client’s aphasia. The fundamental use of speech to ‘get things I need’ was important for those with severe aphasia, whereas those with mild aphasia considered ‘speaking about complex ideas’ important; this highlights the individual variability present in aphasia.

Funding Source: Newcastle University

Project supervisor: Dr Julie Morris and Dr Janet Webster