| Abstract: |
The effects of personalised memory books on the conversations between four residents with dementia and three nursing assistants (NAs) were evaluated using an experimental, single-subject design. Most residents increased their production of factual utterances, NAs decreased their use of non-facilitative conversational behaviours, and conversational turn-taking became more equitable when residents used their books. The addition of NA instruction resulted in further reduction of non-facilitative NA behaviour. The effects of the intervention were somewhat weaker with residents with greater dementia severity. Social validity measures suggested that this intervention may hold promise for improving conversations between NAs and residents with dementia. |
