The Real-Time Comprehension of Idioms by Typical Children, Children with Specific Language Impairment and Children with Autism

Abstract

Physiotherapy practice aims to optimize movement in order to improve functional abilities within peoples' lives. Effective com-munication between patient and therapist is central to achieving these aims. The biopsychosocial model and patient-centred care are two established approaches to health communication and are promoted as frameworks to inform physiotherapy practice. In this chapter, we use empirically derived examples of communication in practice to explore whether and how these approaches are related to communication in physiotherapy. We draw data from two sepa-rate qualitative studies of communicative interactions in primary practice physiotherapy settings. Findings from these two studies demonstrated that physiotherapy clinical communication is struc-tured and physiotherapist-directed, and is adaptive and responsive