Boundaries of participation in care home settings: Use of the Swedish token jaså by a person with dementia.

ABSTRACT

This article is a conversation analytic study of how one elderly person with dementia and her interlocutors interact in a care home setting. Participation is studied in the form of responsive action of the person with dementia, focusing on the Swedish response token 'jaså,' which has not previously been analysed in detail. The central claim is that even though the sequential placement of the response token indicates interactional competence, other factors reveal limited competence and communication impairment. First, the person with dementia's use of gaze is reduced, and she seems to rely on the auditory but not on the visual channel. Second, the interlocutors do not in all situations treat her as a ratified participant in spite of her attempts to contribute to the interaction. This study contributes both to the study of participation in the context of communication impairment and to the study of response tokens in Swedish.