Combining music and life story to enhance participation in family interaction in semantic dementia: a longitudinal study of one family's experience.

BACKGROUND

Semantic dementia is a rarer dementia, classified as a type of frontotemporal dementia and a variant of primary progressive aphasia. Studies examining conversation in this condition and interventions to enhance participation in family life present as gaps in the research literature.

METHODS

Working with one family on a longitudinal basis, this study used conversation analysis and narrative analysis to provide a detailed assessment of communication. This information was used to design an individually tailored life story intervention to facilitate family interaction: a co-produced life story music DVD.

RESULTS

This intervention offered the family a resource that allowed the person with semantic dementia to display areas of retained competence and enhanced participation in interaction in a way that was not typically present in everyday conversation.

CONCLUSIONS

It is argued that fostering greater opportunities for such in-the-moment connections is an important goal for intervention, particularly when language may be significantly compromised.