Aims: This project explores disparities in the working lives of aging and older LGBTQ workers. Considering socio-historical factors, older LGBTQ adults may face unique risks associated with marginalized and nontraditional career paths, which can lead to ongoing mental strain and poorer occupational and economic outcomes. However, the intersection of aging, work, and LGBTQ identities remains underexamined. To address this gap, we will conduct a multi-country investigation based on the theoretical framework proposed by Eppler-Hattab & Steindórsdóttir (2025).
The project was launched within COST Action LeverAge (CA22120) network dedicated to leveraging the multi-age workforce. Collaboration between this network and other LGBTQ networks would strengthen both the research team and the study.
Methods: The study will use a quantitative design to examine older LGBTQ adults across multiple countries. Study variables will be measured using scales drawn from the literature on working life and LGBTQ mental health from a lifespan perspective. Data will be collected through an anonymous online questionnaire distributed to older LGBTQ adults. The study requires access to this population in each country, translation of the questionnaire into local languages, and online distribution of the survey.
Research outcomes: We aim to create a co-authorship publication in a refereed journal. We believe that this topic is important and timely, potentially revealing issues and needs arising from the intersection of aging, work, and LGBTQ identities.
Reference: Eppler-Hattab, R., & Steindórsdóttir, B. D. (2025). The working life course of aging LGBTQ workers: An intersectional perspective and a theoretical framework. Work, Aging and Retirement. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waaf020.
Abstract
As queer communities age, many confront a paradox, having survived exclusion, stigma, pandemics, and social upheaval, they often enter later life with extraordinary resilience while facing heightened vulnerability. Ageing queer people are disproportionately affected by social isolation, estrangement from biological families, economic insecurity, housing precarity, and care systems that continue to benefit heteronormative and biologically defined family structures. Yet alongside these vulnerabilities exists a powerful legacy of resistance, mutual aid, and community-making, a fire sustained through decades of collective survival and care.
For many queer elders, chosen kinship networks have long functioned as vital sources of emotional, social, and practical support. Friends, partners, former partners, neighbours, and community members often assume roles traditionally associated with family, creating webs of belonging that challenge conventional understandings of care and dependency. Despite their significance, these networks frequently remain unrecognized within legal, policy, and institutional frameworks governing ageing and care.
This paper argues for the recognition and strengthening of kinship networks as critical infrastructures of support for ageing Queer Trans populations. Rather than locating care within individual households or formal institutions alone, kinship networks offer relational models grounded in reciprocity, interdependence, and collective responsibility. They acknowledge diverse forms of intimacy and belonging while creating pathways for support across generations and life stages.
By centring the experiences of ageing queer people, this discussion highlights the need to move beyond narrow definitions of family and toward more inclusive understandings of social connection and care. Supporting kinship networks is not only a response to vulnerability but also an affirmation of the enduring creativity, resilience, and relational labour through which queer communities have sustained themselves. In recognizing these networks as legitimate and valuable social formations, we can imagine more just, caring, and affirming futures for Queer Trans ageing.
This study examines the relationships among art, image, and representation in the social construction of LGBTQIA+ aging. It is based on the premise that images do not merely reflect reality but actively shape subjectivities, social recognition, and experiences of belonging. The objective is to analyze how artistic and media representations of older LGBTQIA+ individuals influence self-image, identity construction, and mental health, while also exploring the consequences of invisibility and stigma in later life.
The study adopts a qualitative, narrative, and theoretical-reflective approach, drawing on literature from psychology, aging studies, LGBTQIA+ studies, and visual culture. As visual references, the analysis compares historical artworks depicting older adults with the photographs and narratives presented in The Deepest Part Is the Skin (O Mais Profundo é a Pele), a photographic project by Rafael Medina that foregrounds LGBTQIA+ experiences, identities, and bodies. Through this comparison, the research investigates how aging, desire, and belonging are represented, recognized, or marginalized within visual culture.
The relevance of this study to the workshop lies in its contribution to understanding the social and symbolic dimensions of the needs of older LGBTQIA+ people. While discussions of needs often focus on health, housing, and social care, this research highlights the importance of representation, visibility, and cultural recognition as factors that influence psychological well-being, social inclusion, and a sense of belonging. By examining how images shape experiences of aging, the study contributes to broader international discussions on defining and measuring the diverse needs of older LGBTQIA+ populations.
Official website of artist Rafael Medina: https://rafamedina.com.br/exibitions-and-series
This 5-minute talk will outline a paper I’m beginning to write drawing from LGBT+ data from the IncludeAge project (2022-27). This paper will explore the role or significance of intraminority stress on how mid-older LGBT+ people experience exclusion across their lives, breaking down the assumption that exclusion is primarily caused by cisheteronormative society. The paper is being co-written with project co-researchers, so I will aim to talk a bit about the process of writing the paper, too. The paper contributes to the theme of the workshop by highlighting or at least signalling the relevance of intraminority stress and intra-community pressures facing older LGBT+ people.
This paper examines how literature and motricity can be integrated as educational and cultural tools to strengthen identity, memory, and resistance within LGBTQIA+ communities. Grounded in practices that combine literary narratives with embodied expression, the study explores how stories of struggle, belonging, and transformation may be translated into movement, performance, and collective reflection. In practical workshops, participants engaged with literary texts addressing LGBTQIA+ resistance and cultural marginalisation, using reading, dramatization, dance, and bodily expression to represent emotions, memories, and shared experiences.
The proposal dialogues directly with international debates on how to define and measure the needs of older LGBTQIA+ people. Beyond clinical or service-based indicators, it highlights the importance of recognising cultural, affective, educational, and embodied dimensions of need. Older LGBTQIA+ people often face cumulative experiences of discrimination, social isolation, invisibility, and barriers to care, which may not be fully captured by conventional assessment tools. Literature and motricity offer alternative ways to access subjective experiences, preserve collective memory, and identify forms of vulnerability and resilience that remain undermeasured.
By positioning the body and the word as interconnected forms of knowledge, this work contributes to broader discussions about gaps and inconsistencies in recognising LGBTQIA+ ageing needs. It suggests that culturally sensitive measures should include not only mental health, care access, and social support, but also opportunities for expression, intergenerational dialogue, identity affirmation, and resistance to marginalisation.
This paper offers a reflexive methodological account of the River of Life (RoL) as an arts-based, participant-led approach for researching ageing and identifying need in culturally and politically constrained contexts. In LGBTQIA+ ageing research, need is often understood through indicators such as service access, social isolation, mental health, or discrimination. While important, these measures may miss needs that are relational, culturally mediated, and difficult to voice directly under conditions of stigma and risk. Drawing on a study with older trans women in Malaysia (n=27), I show how River of Life can help make such needs visible. Rather than treating drawings simply as discussion prompts, I analyse them alongside interview narratives and fieldnotes to explore how people represent life events, relationships, uncertainty, and future concerns. The paper shows how needs emerge not only as service gaps, but also through problems of recognition, documentation, kinship, safety, and future manageability. I argue that arts-based, participant-led methods such as River of Life can expand how older LGBTQIA+ needs are understood across different social and cultural contexts.
The growth and diversification of debates on sexuality and human aging have marked recent decades. At the intersection of “old age and male homosexualities,” this study sought to understand how homosexual men experience the aging process. Old age can come as an assault, frightening, distressing, and unsettling. Aging is an existential condition that no individual escapes, and, in social contexts, being old often means becoming invisible to the social gaze. The aging body is perceived as non-erotic, associated with illness, loneliness, and death. Understanding sexuality in old age appears as an urgency, as it is necessary to break down prejudices embedded in social imaginaries and in the personal imaginaries of the elderly themselves.
This was a qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three Brazilian cisgender homosexual men, aged 60 to 71 years. Interviews were conducted online through the Google Meet platform during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interviews revealed that old age is understood through signs of the social imaginary: impotence, dementia, physiological and social losses, dependence, limitation, finitude, and death. The perception of aging first arises through the gaze of the Other. Participants reported decreased libido, inhibition of genital pleasure, and resistance to discussing sexuality. However, desire persists, expressed in the will to be desired. Homosociability, crossed by the valorization of the young body, excludes the older gay man from social environments. To be old, in the homosocial scene, is to be outside the erotic market and deprived of visibility. The aging body is marked by exclusion and the absence of eroticization. Participants reported feelings of invisibility, loneliness, fear of physical dependence, and death.
The findings reveal that old age, for homosexual men, is marked by double stigmatization: age and sexual orientation. Exclusion from social and homosocial spaces, the stigma of the aging body, and invisibility reinforce prejudice. Nevertheless, sexuality does not disappear: desire, libido, and eroticization persist, even if re-signified. Old age may be a time of losses, but also of reinvention and re-stitching, in which sexuality remains an expression of identity, desire, and resistance. These findings highlight the urgency of inclusive health policies and psychosocial interventions that address both ageism and homophobia, ensuring visibility and dignity for aging homosexual men.
This proposed contribution explores the convergence of literature and motricity as educational and cultural strategies to understand the needs, memories, and wellbeing of LGBTQIAPN+ people across the life course, with particular attention to older adults. Based on an experiential project entitled Motricity, Resistance and Literature, the contribution reflects on how body movement, literary narratives, dramatization, dance, and performance can function as tools for cultural resistance, identity affirmation, and collective care within LGBTQIAPN+ communities.
The aim is to discuss how embodied and narrative practices may help reveal needs that are often difficult to capture through conventional health and social care measures, especially among older LGBTQIAPN+ people whose life histories may include stigma, invisibility, discrimination, and the erasure of collective memories. The approach involved practical workshops in which literary texts related to cultural resistance, social struggles, and dissident identities were used as triggers for reading, dialogue, dramatization, collective creation, and bodily expression. Participants were invited to transform memories, emotions, and narratives into symbolic gestures, movements, and performative sequences.
The experience suggests that integrating word and body can expand awareness of identity, belonging, vulnerability, and resistance. It also creates spaces for listening, recognition, empowerment, and the preservation of marginalized cultural traditions. This contribution is relevant to the workshop because defining and measuring the needs of older LGBTQIAPN+ people requires attention not only to clinical and social indicators, but also to embodied memories, cultural expression, community belonging, and the affective dimensions of care. It offers a Brazilian perspective on how arts-based and body-centered methodologies can enrich international discussions on LGBTQIAPN+ aging, wellbeing, and inclusive care.
This presentation will discuss the experience of a public outpatient clinic dedicated to the health promotion and comprehensive care of transgender adults aged 40 and older at the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil. The initiative integrates the three pillars of a university hospital: clinical care, education, and research. The clinic is linked to the geriatrics service, where medical residents in geriatrics actively participate in patient care under supervision.
Ensuring access to healthcare for transgender people remains a major challenge for the advancement of human rights and for improving physical, mental, and social wellbeing across the life course. In this context, the clinic provides inclusive, person-centered, and age-sensitive care for transgender individuals, addressing both healthcare needs and barriers related to stigma and discrimination.
A central aspect of the initiative is its educational role. Over the past three years, more than 60 medical residents have trained within the service, contributing to the dissemination of knowledge and practical experience in transgender health and ageing. This model helps expand cultural competence and improve future healthcare practices beyond the clinic itself.
The presentation will also address future research perspectives emerging from this experience, particularly regarding the ageing process, health trajectories, and social dynamics of transgender older adults in Brazil. The initiative highlights the importance of integrating care, education, and research to advance inclusive ageing policies and practices.
Aims: Older LGBT+ adults face unique intersectional challenges related to ageing, yet their holistic needs are often overlooked in German quantitative ageing studies due to fragmented secondary data. This study critically evaluates German quantitative secondary datasets to establish how methodological improvements could pave the way for more accurate and inclusive research and practice.
Approach: We conducted an exploratory secondary data search and systematically screened German surveys published since 2014. We evaluated studies capturing populations aged 50+ with variables on sexual orientation/gender identity, as well as social, socioeconomic, or health indicators. Out of the 141 questionnaires screened, only nine met our inclusion criteria and achieved a minimum viable sample size of 20 LGBT+ individuals. We then subjected these nine studies to comparative methodological scrutiny.
Relevance to the workshop theme: This presentation addresses the workshop’s focus on research gaps and the scoping review’s finding of a ‘lack of consensus’. Our analysis reveals a significant absence of consensus in the operationalisation of the target group: studies rarely capture both sexual orientation and gender identity simultaneously. Furthermore, data limitations, such as restrictive binary gender categories or inaccurate household cohabitation proxies, mask the community’s internal heterogeneity. By exposing these obstacles and their impact on the needs of older LGBT+ individuals, we propose actionable, evidence-based solutions for standardising multidimensional data collection in future ageing research.
This research was conducted within the context of pé-de-ouro (Comanthera elegans, Eriocaulaceae), an everlasting flower included on the Red List straightly connected to flower pickers – a traditional community of Serra do Espinhaço region, located in Minas Gerais, Brazil. In 2022, a flower picker’s family of Durães site (Buenópolis, MG) approached the management of the Sempre Vivas National Park (SVNP) seeking a partnership to cultivate pé-de-ouro. Beyond obtaining authorization from the Conservation Unit, they sought a partnership to cultivate them in the same manner as their patriarch once did. This study was guided by the following research question: What can Durães quest to re-enact their memories of pé-de-ouro management reveal about the flower pickers/pé-de-ouro socioecological system in Serra do Espinhaço? The theoretical framework is based on the concepts of oralitura (oraliture), ancestry, and spiral time by the afrobrazilian scholar Leda Maria Martins. The methodological approach was participatory, utilizing literature review, field diaries, and photographic notes as research tools. Through data triangulation, the study constructs the possibility of understanding flower “picking” as oralitura inscribed in the Serra do Espinhaço, where the pé-de-ouro serves as a mediating element of ancestry and its biodiversity-related technologies, and the Durães site as an element composing the spiral space-time of the Traditional Peoples and Communities of the Serra do Espinhaço. We present a conceptual framework titled the “Sempre-Vivas Socio-Ecological System” — based on the figure of a prism — which helps to understand the possibility of breaking away from the linearity of Western epistemes. The four faces of the prism are equally important and comprise the concepts of ancestry, oralituras, time scales within spiral time, and well-established ethical agreements and values. This perspective makes the multidimensionality of the pé-de-ouro visible, enabling biodiversity practices focused on conservation initiatives, innovation, and epistemic justice.
Flowers are among the most delicate yet powerful environmental cues through which period drama constructs historical atmosphere. This study examines the visual role of flowers in royal social interiors in Victoria and The Crown, comparing screen representations of the early reigns of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II, respectively. The analysis focuses on dining rooms, drawing rooms, ballrooms and other spaces of formal sociability, where monarchy is staged through domestic ritual, ceremonial display and elite interaction. Floral presence is defined as the visibility, distribution and visual significance of flowers and floral motifs within a scene, including table arrangements, costume, hairstyle, props and interior decoration. Using comparative visual analysis informed by environmental psychology, selected scenes are coded according to the scale, density, placement, colour palette, distribution and symbolic function of floral elements across the body, furniture, table, room and mise-en-scène. Particular attention is given to how flowers organise the affective atmosphere, social meaning and perceived identity of royal interiors. Preliminary findings suggest a contrast. Victoria constructs a pervasive floral aesthetic, associating flowers with youth, romance, femininity and ornamental abundance. The Crown, by contrast, presents flowers in a more restrained and spatially controlled manner, linking them to protocol, institutional formality and post-war discipline. In dialogue with scholarship on period drama, mise-en-scène and Victorian floral symbolism, these findings suggest that flowers should not be understood as passive ornament, but as environmental and symbolic cues through which period drama constructs distinct psychological atmospheres of monarchy across historical eras.
Anthocyanins are widely used in the food industry for their intense colours and health benefits, such as cardiovascular protection and neuroprotection. However, their instability challenges large-scale applications. Clitoria ternatea flowers contain intense blue polyacylated anthocyanins that attract scientific interest. This study investigated the effects of an optimised anthocyanin extract (CTE) from C. ternatea blue petals on behavioural and neurochemical changes induced in Drosophila melanogaster by the herbicide paraquat, simulating a Parkinson’s disease model. Extraction by maceration was optimised using a Box-Behnken design, keeping pH and solid-liquid ratio constant, while varying time, ethanol concentration, and temperature. Total anthocyanins were quantified by HPLC. Based on Response Surface Methodology, CTE was added to the diet of D. melanogaster (up to 3 days old) for 10 days across five groups: standard control diet (SCD) and SCD with 0.5, 1.5, 5, and 15 mg/mL of CTE to find the ideal concentration. Behavioural studies (negative geotaxis and open field) and survival analyses identified 15 mg/mL as the optimal concentration. Consequently, flies were tested again with 15 mg/mL CTE for 10 days, introducing paraquat on the third day. Groups included: SCD control, SCD + CTE, SCD + paraquat, and SCD + paraquat + CTE. Results showed that 15 mg/mL CTE reduced fly mortality over treatment days and decreased climbing time compared to paraquat-exposed groups. No significant differences were observed in open field crossings. This study clarifies the impact of CTE on fly survival and locomotor behaviour.
Teachers are leaving the profession in large numbers. Policy responses focus on workload, pay, and accountability but rarely on the aesthetic conditions of the spaces where teachers work and recover.
This paper offers a provocation from teacher education. Beauty, within a virtue ethics framework, is not decoration but a condition for human flourishing. We increasingly attend to integrity, justice, and practical wisdom as professional virtues for teachers. But we rarely, if ever, consider the aesthetic dimensions of the spaces we ask teachers to inhabit for a working lifetime. This is not a minor omission. If environments shape character, and character shapes practice, the aesthetics of a workplace are an ethical matter.
Research on human responses to flowers offers a scientific basis for taking this seriously. Flowers reliably induce positive emotion (Haviland-Jones et al., 2005), support physiological relaxation (Ikei et al., 2014), and greenery can restore sustained attention (Lee et al., 2015). These findings carry direct implications for teachers’ professional environments that have not yet been explored.
This paper proposes that education, and teacher flourishing specifically, is a significant missing context in this literature. Flowers may function as environmental enablers of the conditions that allow teachers not merely to survive but to flourish: restored attention, positive affect, and the aesthetic engagement that the virtue tradition has long understood as generative of the good life.
I come to this workshop as an outsider to your field but with the professional experience to ask – do flowers impact the professional flourishing of teachers?
Let’s take a closer look at how Africans have historically interacted with flowers. Traditionally, many African cultures have approached flowers with a more “instrumental” mindset rather than just for their beauty. Scholars like Jack Goody and Ali Mazrui have pointed out a noticeable “floral gap” in indigenous African art, sculpture, and poetry, where flowers are often missing unless influenced by outside cultures. This viewpoint suggests that in equatorial regions, flowers were typically seen as “potential fruit,” leading to a cultural preference for the end product—the fruit—over the flowers themselves. As a result, many indigenous perspectives are more “organic,” focusing on the medicinal, spiritual, or practical uses of plants rather than their decorative appeal.
However, the way contemporary Africans engage with flowers is rich and evolving. In various communities, flowers serve as significant links between the physical and spiritual realms, often used in rituals to pay tribute to ancestors and spirits. Certain flowers carry profound meanings: for instance, the Protea stands for transformation and diversity, while the Baobab flower embodies resilience and community. Nowadays, flowers play a vital role in modern celebrations, from weddings to national honors—like Nigeria’s national flower, Costus spectabilis, which symbolizes growth and joy.
On the economic front, Africa has tapped into floriculture, turning it into a billion-dollar export industry, with countries like Kenya and Ethiopia at the forefront of global supply chains. This transformation has woven flowers into the contemporary African socioeconomic landscape, creating significant job opportunities, especially for women. Thus, the African relationship with flowers is a beautiful blend of ancient practical wisdom and modern appreciation for aesthetics and economic value.
The UK elderflower supply chain for food and drink processing remains reliant on wild collection presenting potential future supply insecurities & logistical, traceability & scalability challenges. Knowledge is therefore required to set up productive commercial UK cultivation. There is little data available on the performance of commercial European elder (Sambucus nigra) selections for flower yield and pick efficiency & no data on yield in UK growing conditions. A randomised complete block design field trial was used to compare fresh flower yield (measured as fresh flower weight, count & diameter) in a range of named selections for the first time as well as comparison to a local wild selection. Yield data was analysed in trees approaching productive maturity. Only low input management was applied, acknowledging market need and commercial viability, which included grass mowing, wood chip mulch for weed control & white clover cover crop in rows, with no irrigation or application of fertiliser. Annual selective pruning of half of each experimental block was applied, every other year, 3 years after planting and establishment. Three top yielding selections were identified that consistently had the best fresh flower yield in terms of all three yield metrics and a further three selections were identified as favourable, in terms of fresh weight yield and pick efficiency, giving six favourable selections to take into farm trials, and demonstrating that it is likely worthwhile using specific selections rather than relying on local wild types (which consistently were shown to yield significantly lower for all yield metrics).
Creative arts interventions are increasingly recognised as valuable non-pharmacological approaches to supporting wellbeing in people living with dementia (PLWD). Systematic reviews suggest that participation in arts-based activities may improve mood, engagement and aspects of quality of life in this population (Emblad & Mukaetova-Ladinska, 2020). There is also emerging evidence that nature and garden-based interventions may support wellbeing in PLWD (e.g., Whear et al., 2014; van der Velde-van Buuringen et al., 2023). However, relatively little research has explored how structured engagement with visual nature-based art, and floral artwork in particular, may shape everyday experiences of wellbeing and social connection in care home settings. This is an important area to explore given the value of meaningful sensory, emotional and relational experiences in supporting wellbeing for this population.
This mixed-methods feasibility study explores how guided engagement with floral visual art influences wellbeing and social engagement among older adults with mild to moderate dementia.
Residents will take part in viewing and discussion sessions centred on contemporary photographic floral artworks. Quantitative outcomes will include brief pre and post session mood ratings and observational indicators of affect, engagement and verbal interaction. Qualitative reflections from care staff supporting the sessions will be gathered to examine perceived impacts on residents, and implications for staff confidence, workplace enrichment and longer-term sustainability.
By focusing on guided visual engagement within a familiar living environment, this study aims to improve understanding of how floral art may support wellbeing in dementia care, while informing the development of feasible interventions in care homes.
Emma Bass’ training as a nurse before becoming a photographer has directly shaped her thirteen–year practice of placing floral photographic works into clinical environments. Her prints have been installed in oncology centres, hospices, maternity and stillbirth units, hospitals and aged care facilities in New Zealand and internationally – and consistent unsolicited responses from patients, families and clinical staff suggest the works produce measurable effects. This practice has generated situated knowledge about how design decisions – flower species, colour temperature, scale, spatial placement, environmental relationship – shape patient experience. Such knowledge is tacit within her practice, the Floral Effect Project aims to create new research from it.
Research on human responses to flowers has developed primarily within psychology, evolutionary biology and environmental health, built on biometric methodologies. This work has produced measurable evidence that photographic floral imagery influences stress, autonomic nervous function and clinical outcome, but it has not examined the design decisions determining these effects. Human–centred design methods hold potential to produce knowledge about the shape, substance and emotional resonance of what patients encounter – yet these remain outside the frame of existing research.
The Floral Effect Project is a design–led research collaboration between Bass and design researcher Aaron Fry. Proposing an action research approach that activates Bass’s existing installations, it proposes to bring design knowledge into dialogue with biometric and psychosocial outcome measures. We invite participants to consider what a design–led investigation of floral photography in clinical environments would need to examine, and how their expertise might contribute.
Children and young people often find it difficult to understand the complex changes that can occur when a parent or family member experiences a brain injury. Cognitive, emotional, behavioural, social, and physical effects may be confusing, sometimes leading to anxiety, misunderstanding, and feelings of isolation. This project led by The Silverlining Brain Injury Charity, presents an innovative, survivor-led educational resource designed to address these challenges through creativity and storytelling.
The Woodland Friends: Adventures through the Seasons is a children’s book co-created by adult brain injury survivors (“Silverliners”). Each character is represented as a gentle woodland animal, enabling sensitive communication of lived experiences in an accessible and engaging way. Through narrative and imagery, the book explores the realities of brain injury while promoting empathy, resilience, kindness, and practical coping strategies. Central to the story is a strengths-based message: that challenges can be navigated with compassion, patience, and belief in oneself and others.
The project is the outcome of a multidisciplinary creative collaboration across Silverlining therapeutic rehabilitation groups, including Creative Writing, Art, Photography, and Healthy Relationships, with ongoing contributions from Music and Drama groups to expand the resource into a multisensory experience. This co-production model empowers survivors while generating meaningful educational content.
The initiative aims to reduce barriers for families and professionals in supporting children affected by brain injury, offering a valuable tool for schools and community settings. This work demonstrates the potential of creative, survivor-led approaches to bridge gaps in communication and support for people of all ages.
Background and Objectives:
Brain injuries affect the whole family. Reading with children is a common shared communication activity providing a natural ramp for interactive communication. This case reflection discusses strategy-based interventions for three clients with Cognitive Communication Disorder following Acquired Brain Injury, aimed at improving their abilities to share reading with their primary age children.
Method
We adopted a strategy training approach using prompts for priming, repetition, discussion and summarising. Individualised functional strategies were explored. For a third patient we supported access to story-sharing via development of a video. Clients self-rated ability to follow and understand stories when reading with their children.
Results
Following strategy-training and adoption, clients’ self-rating of their ability to follow a story improved on average (n=2) from 2/10 to 8/10. Client use of written prompts was dependent on attention switching and short term memory skills. Clients reported increased confidence and enjoyment in reading with their children, and feeling more positive about their parental role.
Conclusions
The inherent properties of family reading make it a natural means of enhancing interactive communication between parents with CCD and their children, when supported by functional strategies. Experiencing success improved clients’ confidence as parents, and increased children’s opportunities for positive communication experiences. Recommended changes to future practice are discussed. These include a children’s rating scale for reading pleasure and more detailed outcome measures. Exploring the more general therapeutic impact at the impairment level in terms of reading ability and social communication skills is considered.