The effect of familiarity of conversation partners on conversation turns contributed by augmented and typical speakers

The purpose of this current research was to determine the effect of familiarity of conversation partners on contributed conversation turns to dyadic conversation between individuals who use AAC and typically speaking conversation partners. Three groups (G1-G3) participated in this study. Each group contained seven participants, including an individual who used a speech-generating device (SGD) and familiar and unfamiliar conversation partners. Each 20-min dyadic conversation was video-recorded for analysis of contributed conversation turns. The findings of the current study showed that the asymmetries of contributed conversation turns exist in both familiar and unfamiliar dyadic conversation between AAC users and typically speaking conversation partners. In addition, the asymmetry in the familiar dyadic conversation did not differ from that in the unfamiliar dyadic conversation.