Topic and vocabulary use patterns of elderly women

Effects of conversational topic choice on outcomes of augmentative communication intervention for adults with aphasia

“…For example, one participant indicated that he was interested in talking about his work as a construction supervisor and another participant enjoyed talking about his activities at a local senior centre. Additional topics of interest to cohorts of similar age and the same gender were added to the general interest list (Stuart, Vanderhoof, & Beukelman, 1993;Stuart, Vanderhoof-Bilyeu, & Beukelman, 1994). Examples of these topics include family, friends, finance, pets, sports, foods, politics, news, travel, church, and cars.…”

Small Groups, Big Gains: Efficacy of a Tier 2 Phonological Awareness Intervention With Preschoolers With Early Literacy Deficits

“…According to Morrow et al (1993), when these techniques were compared for most words chosen, checking off words from a vocabulary list provided the greatest assistance and yielded more words than any other process. Other studies have looked specifically at issues of vocabulary inclusion in AAC systems for older adults by analyzing topic and word-use patterns of older women (Stuart, Vanderhoof, & Beukelman, 1993). Topic preferences for older women included family life and social networks.…”

“…Our research confirms those topics, with the private sphere category most represented. Older adults, who use conversation most often to reminisce and retell stories (Stuart et al, 1993), rely on this category more. These differences may reflect the fact that older individuals have more time to devote to hobbies and private or personal sphere topics, whereas younger individuals are more likely to have the stamina for travel and are more likely to be working or to have worked recently.…”

The self-determined and partner-predicted topic preferences of adults with aphasia

“…Topics have been defined as the subject matter of the conversation, or what is spoken about and can be reported to have been spoken about (Stuart, Vanderhoof, & Beukelman, 1993). Topics introduce information and act as interactional units to provide conversational participants with a sense of meaning and cohesiveness (Stuart, et al, 1994).…”