Professional and personal caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) receive little or no training with regards to the nature, course and accompanying communication challenges of this illness (Haak, 2003). The main aim of the research study was to investigate the interaction between nursing home staff and persons with AD with in a nursing home context, before and after attending a communication-orientated educational workshop for the nursing home staff. Research was carried out by using multiple single case studies. A pre-experimental design was used as the research method. The four participants’ communication skills (verbal, nonverbal and paralinguistic) were evaluated by using the Pragmatic Protocol (Prutting and Kirchner, 1987). Their listening skills were observed and scored according to the Checklist of listening behaviours (Hartley, 1995). A questionnaire was designed to measure the participants’ knowledge and perceptions of different AD aspects. Various shortcomings were identified in the interaction process which highlights the importance of training staff to become competent in using communication strategies that facilitate more successful interaction with persons with AD. The communication-orientated educational workshop (event of the study) was designed according to the data that was collected and based on the person-centred approach of Kitwood (1997). The participants’ communication and listening skills, knowledge and perceptions were evaluated again in the posttest (after the workshop) to determine whether or not there had been a change in these areas. A general view of all the participants’ results showed that there was a significant change in their communication and listening skills. The interaction process was more appropriate during the posttest in comparison to the results that were obtained in the pretest. The participants’ interaction were based more on the principles of the person-centred approach to dementia care than the pretest. There had been a noticeable increase after the workshop in the participants’ knowledge and change to a more positive perception towards persons with AD and the illness. The conclusion has been reached that attendance and participation in a communication-orientated educational workshop leads to more positive interaction with persons with AD. This study has motivated the need for dementia care that is based on the principles of the person-centred approach. It is suggested that an increase in the person-centred approach leads to improvement in quality of life of persons with AD as well as the decrease of the effect of institutionalization in a nursing home setting. Suggestions for future research include that attention should be given to educational programmes with regards to communication strategies for persons with AD. It has furthermore been suggested to approach managers of nursing homes regarding future inservice training of their nursing home staff. / Dissertation (M(Communication Pathology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology / unrestricted

Text in Afrikaans with summaries in Afrikaans, English and Tshwana / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 183-193) / Pragmatiese merkers in Omgangsafrikaans dien as belangrike kontekstualiseringswenke. Dit rig gespreksgenote in terme van uitingrelevansie en stel die spreker in staat om, op bondige wyse, ’n houding teenoor die proposisie van die uiting te openbaar. Dit dra ook by tot die gesprekstruktuur. Die sistematiese ondersoek na pragmatiese merkers volg ’n eklektiese benadering: die relevansieteorie, grammatikalisasieteorie, diskoersanalise, sosiopragmatiek en korpuslinguistiek word ingespan om die verskynsel te bestudeer en te verklaar. Die pragmatiese merkers “rêrig/regtig”, “oukei”, “soos”, “hoor” en “weet” is bestudeer aan die hand van die Pretoriakorpus van Omgangsafrikaans (PO) vanweë hul hoë gebruiksfrekwensie in die korpus. ’n Vergelyking van die gebruiksfrekwensies van hierdie pragmatiese merkers onder verskillende groeperinge van sprekers toon aan dat jong, volwasse en bejaarde mans en vroue dit verskillend gebruik. Die onderskeie funksies bied voorts leidrade waardeur die grammatikalisasie van pragmatiese merkers nagespeur kan word. Dit wil voorkom asof jong vroulike sprekers die voortou neem in die gebruik en ontwikkeling van pragmatiese merkers teenoor jong manlike sprekers. Die studie het verder bevind dat veral volwasse vroulike sprekers aktief bydra tot die ontwikkeling van hierdie pragmatiese merkers. / Pragmatic markers in interactional Afrikaans serve as important contextualising cues. They guide interlocutors as to the relevance of utterances and equip the speaker to signal an attitude towards the proposition of the utterance in a succinct way. They also contribute to the conversation structure. The systematic investigation of pragmatic markers follows an eclectic approach: relevance theory, grammaticalisation theory, discourse analysis, sociopragmatics and corpus linguistics are engaged in order to study and explain the phenomenon. The pragmatic markers “rêrig/regtig”, “oukei”, “soos”, “hoor” en “weet” are studied on the basis of the Pretoriakorpus van Omgangsafrikaans (PO) owing to their high frequency in the corpus. A comparison of the usage frequencies of these pragmatic markers among various groups of speakers indicates that young, adult and elderly men and women use them differently. The respective functions offer clues by which the grammaticalisation of pragmatic markers may be traced. It appears that young female speakers take the lead in the use and development of pragmatic markers compared to young male speakers. The study further found that especially adult female speakers contribute actively to the development of these pragmatic markers. / Matshwao a puo mo puong ya kgolagano ya Afrikaans a dira jaaka matshwao a botlhokwa a bokao. A kaela babui ka bomaleba jwa dipuo le go thusa sebui go bontsha maikutlo malebana le polelo e e tshitshinngwang ka boripana. Gape a tshwaela mo sebopegong sa puisano. Tshekatsheko e e rulaganeng ya matshwao a puo e ne e dirisa mekgwa e e farologaneng: tiori ya bomaleba, tiori ya tiriso ya thutapuo, tshekatsheko ya puisano, matshwao a puoloago le thuto ya dipuo e e lebelelang dikwalo tse di gona (corpus linguistics) di dirisitswe go batlisisa le go tlhalosa dikgakgamatso tseo. Matshwao a puo a “rêrig/regtig”, “oukei”, “soos”, “hoor” le “weet” a batlisisitswe go lebeletswe Pretoriakorpus van Omgangsafrikaans (PO) ka ntlha ya go nna teng ga ona thata mo dikwalong. Tshwantshanyo ya seelo sa tiriso ya matshwao ano a puo magareng ga ditlhopha tsa dibui e supa gore bašwa, bagolo le bagodi ba banna le basadi ba a dirisa ka ditsela tse di farologaneng. Ditiro tse di rileng di bontsha disupi tse ka tsona go ka latedisiwang tiriso ya thutapuo ya matshwao a puo. Go bonala fa dibui tsa bašwa ba basadi di eteletse pele mo tirisong le kgodisong ya matshwao a puo fa di ntshwantshanngwa le dibui tsa banna. Thutopatlisiso e fitlheletse gape gore dibui tsa bagolo ba basadi bogolosegolo di tshwaela ka botlhaga mo kgodisong ya matshwao ano a puo. / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / M.A. (Afrikaans)