Making people with aphasia speak for themselves in conversation: non-collaboration by significant others in the production of answers to test questions

Background: Non-collaboration by significant others (SOs) in interactions with people with aphasia has been previously observed in the context of known-response activities. However, there is no evidence in these studies of an overtly negative stance or criticism by the SOs or interactional discord. Aims: This study aims to explore a more extreme form of non-collaboration in test question activities. Specifically, we examine how SOs’ practice in these testing activities relates to (1) the typically prolonged nature of the person with aphasia’s (PWA) attempts; and (2) the negative stances by the SOs and the interactional discord that are regularly displayed in these conversations when this practice is employed. Second, we use these findings to provide an overview of the different practices employed by SOs in test question activities, comparing them in the form of a continuum of options (or interactional “styles”) available to SOs, and we highlight the dilemmas faced by SOs in knowing what to do for the best when interacting with their family members with aphasia. Methods: We use Conversation Analysis (CA) to analyze domestic conversations between two PWA-SO couples, focusing on the practice employed by SO in test question sequences when the PWA struggles to produce an adequate answer. Conclusion: The practices employed by SOs indicate that they treat their partner with aphasia as someone who should be autonomous and “speak for themselves” in that they should produce a certain type of utterance in the conversation (here, an answer to a test question) by themselves and without any substantive assistance from the SO. When this practice is employed by the SOs, the activity ceases being solely about eliciting the correct answer; it regularly also becomes a locus of interactional discord.