The focus of this project was to develop a clear and reliable protocol that measured how people with Broca’s aphasia use gestures in a facilitative or compensatory manner in comparison to individuals with Wernicke’s aphasia. Previous literature has disagreed on the definitions of facilitative and compensatory gestures and has not developed one concise and conventional methodology to represent how individuals with Broca’s and Wernicke’s aphasia are using gestures across various discourse tasks.
The protocol developed in the current study analyzes the specificity, timing, and function of gestures relative to speech. The Gesture and Speech Specificity scales determine the accuracy and clarity of the gesture or corresponding speech produced. The timing scale determines when the gesture was produced relative to the speech most related to the target of the gesture. Lastly, the Gesture-Speech Relationship Scale represents how informative the gesture was in comparison with the speech produced. These scales represent when gestures are produced, how meaningful they are and whether they serve a compensatory or facilitative function for those with Broca’s or Wernicke’s aphasia.
On average, people with Broca’s aphasia used more specific gestures to compensate for their failures in expressive speech. People with Wernicke’s aphasia produced fewer specific gestures and were more likely to produce these gestures coinciding with speech, i.e., as a facilitative strategy. The results from this project suggest that gestures should be used as a strategic component of intervention. Using gestures in a compensatory or facilitative manner can allow for conversation partners to better understand the communication needs of PwA.