Overcoming Elder speak: A Qualitative Study of Three Alternatives

Purpose: This study identifies genres of communication that avoid the features of elderspeak and successfully engage cog- nitively or physically affected older adults in rich communicative interaction. Design and Methods: The study examined 100 hr of audio- and video-recorded interaction between older Catholic nuns and their caregivers. The data were collected as part of a 7-year study on the linguistic and communicative factors that contribute to successful aging in a Catholic convent infirmary. Data analyzed in this article were selected from the corpus based on 2 criteria: (a) the interaction was absent of elderspeak and (b) the interaction was between a communicatively or cognitively impaired older adult and a caregiver. Results: Linguistic analysis of the interactions revealed 3 alternatives to elderspeak that maintain lexically and grammati- cally rich communication while maintaining minimal opportunity for communicative failure or breakdown. These include: (a) offered and requested blessings, (b) jokes, and (c) narratives. Implications: These 3 communicative strategies offer examples of lexically and grammatically complex ways to communi- cate with older adults who have little other opportunity for similarly complex interaction and may reduce resistiveness to care, and linguistic isolation, which has been linked to cognitive decline.