ABSTRACT
There is now a large, and rapidly growing, body of work which uses Conversation Analysis (CA) to examine a range of communication disorders and difficulties. Collections of papers can be found, for example, in Goodwin (2003) on aphasia, Mates, Mikesell, and Smith (2010) on fronto-temporal dementia, and Egbert and Depperman (2012) on hearing impairments. Conversation Analysis has been used not only as a research method for analyzing communication disorders; in the field of acquired disorders, in particular aphasiology, it has also been central to the development of novel forms of planning, implementing and evaluating intervention which aims to improve conversations involving a person with a communication disorder (PWCD) (see Wilkinson & Wielaert (2012) for an overview of such work within aphasiology). Clinical resource packs such as Supporting Partners of People with Aphasia in Relationships and Conversation (SPPARC; Lock, Wilkinson, & Bryan, 2001) have also facilitated the use of this approach by clinicians in the assessment and treatment of PWCDs in everyday health care settings.
