Exploring how known‐answer questions are used in conversations about funerals between people with learning disabilities and support staff

Background

People with learning disabilities should be involved in conversations around funerals. Conversation-starter pictures were developed to support funeral conversations between people with a learning disability and support staff. How this resource is used in practice and how staff asks questions about the funeral pictures need exploration. This study explored how known-answer questions were posed and pursued when people with learning disabilities and support staff talk about funeral pictures.

Methods

Seven sessions with people with learning disabilities and support staff using funeral resources from an end-of-life care planning toolkit were video-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Conversation Analysis. Known-answer questions were identified and analysed in two sessions involving the ‘Let's Talk About Funerals’ resource.

Findings

Staff asked known-answer questions where the recipient should provide a ‘correct’ answer. Questions were initially open, not indicating that a specific answer was needed. Staff pursued answers through follow-up questions targeting funeral terms and by minimally acknowledging the proposed responses. This led to missed opportunities to elaborate on these responses.

Conclusions

Support staff should be mindful about pursuing answers as it may close the conversation and not allow for exploration of the perspective of the person with a learning disability.

Summary

- We video-recorded people with learning disabilities and support staff talking about funeral pictures and looked at ‘known-answer’ questions.

- Support staff asked open questions (e.g., “What do you think is happening in the picture?”), but they did not say much when the person with a learning disability answered.

- Support staff instead asked other questions to get the person to say a specific answer (e.g., a funeral word like ‘cremation’).

- Asking ‘known-answer’ questions did not open up the conversation. The person with a learning disability was not in control, and staff did not get to know more about their thoughts.

- Staff should think about their questions and how to best teach new funeral words. They can do this in other ways where the person with a learning disability has more control.