Utvärdering av samtalsmatta som kommunikationsstöd i grupp för personer med Huntingtons sjukdom

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the function of Talking Mats in a group of people with Huntington’s disease, with main focus on the effectiveness of communication. Four individuals with Huntington’s disease and their group leader participated in the study. The group was videotaped during four sets of conversations; two with and two without Talking Mats. A mixed method quantitative and qualitative study was carried out by evaluating the conversations with the protocol Effectiveness Framework of Functional Communication; by analyzing the number of follow-up questions and overlapping utterances; and by interviewing the participants and the group leader. The results showed improved effectiveness of communication for all participants and increased number of follow-up questions from both participants and from the group leader, suggesting that Talking Mats is useful in multiparty interaction for persons with Huntington’s disease. Further research is required in order to be able to generalize the results