Living with a communicative disability

Communication problems may occur as a result of a number of conditions and diseases such as developmental language disorder (DLD), hearing loss, stroke and dementia. How these communicative disabilities affect everyday communication varies, but communication is often described as very problematic by both the people who have the disability and by their significant others.

Foto: Getty Images

Being able to communicate is important for social participation, activity and for being able to exercise one's personal citizenship. Within the project group, we have a common focus on the consequences of communicative disabilities in everyday life. Our theoretical frameworks are based on a dialogical perspective, and we use, inter alia, multimodal interaction analysis.

Foto: Getty Images

Within the project group, we have a common focus on the consequences of communicative disabilities in everyday life. Our theoretical frameworks are based on a dialogical perspective, and we use, inter alia, multimodal interaction analysis. The area of the project group includes both research concerning children with developmental communicative disabilities and research with adults with acquired diseases and injuries. We are also investigating how to use digital technology to support communication, especially for people with dementia.

An important part of the group's research in all subprojects is to increase the ecological validity in speech language pathology (SLP) practice; by focusing on people's everyday lives, we may contribute to SLP interventions being designed to have an impact on individuals' opportunities to participate in social interaction, make decisions about their own person and to exercise an active citizenship. In one of the group's sub-projects, results of linguistic and cognitive tests are compared with everyday interaction, and the results put forward the importance of also including everyday interaction in SLP assessment.

Project group members

Projektgruppens medlemmar
Namn Titel Funktion
Christina Samuelsson Professor Project group leader
Elias Ingebrand SLP Post doc
Ulrika Marklund PhD, SLP Post doc

In collaboration with

I samarbete med
Namn Titel Funktion Lärosäte
Lars-Christer Hydén Professor Researcher Linköpings University
Björn Lyxell Professor Researcher Oslo University
Henrik Danielsson Professor Researcher Linköpings University
Charlotta Plejert Ass. professor Researcher Linköpings University
Anna Ekström Ass. professor Researcher Linköpings University
Lena Rosenberg Ass. professor Researcher Karolinska Institutet
Camilla Malinowsky Ass. professor Researcher Karolinska Institutet
Birgitta Sahlén Professor Researcher Lunds University
Olof Sandgren Ass. professor Researcher Lunds University
Ellen Marklund PhD Researcher Stockholms University
Lisa Gustavsson PhD Researcher Lunds University
Karin Myrberg SLP PhD student Linköpings University
Sophia Lindeberg SLP PhD student Linköpings University

Projects

Selected publications

"It's Our Gang"-Promoting Social Inclusion for People with Dementia by Using Digital Communication Support in a Group Activity 
Samuelsson C, Ferm U, Ekstrom A CLINICAL GERONTOLOGIST 2021;44(4):418-429

A person living with dementia learning to navigate an iPad: a case study
Ingebrand E, Samuelsson C, Hydén Lc Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology 2020;():1-10

Tablet computer-supported conversation between people with dementia and their carers: technology as interactional focus
Ferm U, Ekstrom A, Larsson E, Samuelsson C UNIVERSAL ACCESS IN THE INFORMATION SOCIETY 2020

Digital communication support in interaction involving people with dementia
Samuelsson C, Ekstrom A LOGOPEDICS PHONIATRICS VOCOLOGY 2019;44(1):41-50

Different approaches in aphasia assessments: a comparison between test and everyday conversations
Myrberg K, Hyden Lc, Samuelsson C APHASIOLOGY 2018;32(4):417-435

Collaboration, trouble and repair in multiparty interactions involving couples with dementia or aphasia
Samuelsson C, Hyden Lc INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2017;19(5):454-464

Prosodic aspects of repetition in Swedish-speaking children with developmental language disorder
Sundstrom S, Lyxell B, Samuelsson C INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2019;21(6):623-634

Phonological and grammatical production in children with developmental language disorder and children with hearing impairment
Sundstrom S, Lofkvist U, Lyxell B, Samuelsson C CHILD LANGUAGE TEACHING & THERAPY 2018;34(3):289-302

Prosodic and segmental aspects of nonword repetition in 4- to 6-year-old children who are deaf and hard of hearing compared to controls with normal hearing
Sundström S, Löfkvist U, Lyxell B, Samuelsson C Clinical linguistics & phonetics 2018;32(10):950-971

CS
Content reviewer:
Åsa Catapano
27-09-2023