More Shared Responsibility for "More Appropriate Communication".
Morton Ann Gernsbacher
PMID 30090863WHAT IT FOUND
Only 7 of 100 articles made "more appropriate communication" a shared responsibility. 61 placed it on more powerful partners, such as clinicians or organizations. 32 placed it on less powerful partners, often children with developmental disabilities.
Key findings
01Only 7 of 100 examined articles implied that "more appropriate communication" was a shared responsibility among communication partners.
0261 of 100 examined articles implied that responsibility lay with more powerful partners, including healthcare providers and organizations.
0332 of 100 examined articles implied that responsibility lay with less powerful partners, mostly children with developmental disabilities communicating with parents, teachers, or clinicians.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The review looked only at the first 100 Google Scholar articles containing the phrase, so it may miss relevant work and may not represent all communication research. It counted how articles framed responsibility, not whether any communication change worked for patients. Many examples come from non-clinical settings, such as corporations, judges, and designers, so the findings do not directly show how to change therapy. The author's suggestions about sharing responsibility are opinions drawn from selected articles, not tested interventions. The search used only the phrase "more appropriate communication," so it may not cover all relevant terms or populations.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest statement is included in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the article counts as proof that telling clinicians to change their communication will improve patient outcomes. The paper describes how 100 articles assign responsibility; it does not report clinical results.