Why so Little Interest in Whether or Not Old People Talk: A Review of Recent Research on Verbal Communication among the Elderly

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the spoken communication of chronically ill and aging residents of long term care institutions. Social gerontologists and speech pathologists have investigated areas related to spoken communication, however, there has been almost no investigation of communication from the patients' and staff perspective. Spoken communication is a vital component of social interaction and psychological well being and underlies such concepts as isolation, integration, and adjustment, and is a fertile area for investigation and analysis.