Instructing and socializing patients with aphasia to gaze at the therapist’s mouth to produce speech sounds in language therapy

This paper analyzes the instructional dimension of speech–language therapy with people diagnosed with aphasia. It focuses on the way patients are instructed and socialized by speech therapists in the communicative dynamics of the therapy as a specific form of social interaction and, more particularly, to a specific therapeutic technique of scaffolding that consists of gazing at the therapist's mouth to benefit from audio-visual cues (such as the mouth's position). This technique, which is observed during the accomplishment of labeling activities, can help the patient solve difficulties in the production of target words and speech sounds. Nevertheless, it requires precise bodily coordination and gaze control. Through the analysis of a corpus of video-recorded sessions with the same patient over the first weeks of early recovery in the hospital setting, this paper explores the way in which the patient is instructed and socialized in this specific institutional and therapeutic form of communication.