Affiliation, topicality, and Asperger’s

Objective: In storytelling environments, recipients’ questions have mainly been described as non-affiliative. This article examines how the topicality of story-responsive questions relates to the recipients’ displays of affiliation. Furthermore, we investigate whether there are differences between the practices of neurotypical participants (NT) and participants diagnosed with Asperger syndrome (AS) in this regard. While aiming to uncover the practices of story-responsive questions in general, we also seek to shed light on the specific interactional features associated with AS. Method: Our method is qualitative conversation analysis. Drawing on a dataset of Finnish quasi-natural conversations, we compare the interactional consequences of story-responsive questions asked by NT- and AS-participants. Results: We show how the NT-participants in our data use a specific set of practices to manage the topical relevance of their questions, while the AS-participants’ production of otherwise very similar questions differs precisely with reference to these practices. Discussion: We argue that the different ways in which the NT- and AS-participants treat the topicality of their questions influence the relative affiliative import of the questions in subtle, but yet significant ways. Conclusions: The affiliative import of story-responsive questions can only really be seen in retrospect, since, in their subsequent turns, the questioner can cast their action as having prepared the ground for affiliation.

Showing knowing

Purpose: This article examines how persons with intellectual disabilities and professionals working with them manage interactionally challenging situations in which they negotiate epistemic authority. In each situation, the topic of the talk concerns something the person with intellectual disability knows best, such as their plans and hopes. Persons with intellectual disabilities are, thus, expected to show more knowledge about the topic than the professionals. Method: The database for this study consisted of qualitative analysis of 16 videorecorded dyadic conversations between 12 persons with intellectual disabilities and 11 professional co-participants. The methodological approach taken was conversation analysis. Results. Epistemic negotiations turned out to be quite difficult for the interactants. In these situations, the professionals resorted to three practices called renewed requests for confirmations, indirect challenging, and open challenge, which had different impacts on the epistemic authority and full participation of the persons with intellectual disabilities. Discussion and conclusion: None of the practices proved to be unequivocally better or worse than the others, but all had features that seemed both to strengthen and to weaken full participation. The results of the study can also be used to foster professionals’ practical knowledge of how to deal with interactionally challenging situations in conversations with their clients.

Collaborative storytelling with a person with aphasia

Introduction: This study explores practices employed by a person with aphasia (PWA) and his wife to organize collaborative storytelling in a multiparty interaction. We identify practices that further the PWA’s agency – his impact on action – while he is telling a story together with his wife. Method: Using conversation analysis (CA), we carried out a case study of a successful storytelling sequence involving a 39-year-old man with anomic aphasia during a conversation with friends. Analysis: The PWA contributed to the storytelling by initiating the story sequence and by producing short but significant utterances in which he provided essential information and displayed epistemic authority. The spouse aligned with the PWA’s initiated actions and supported his agency by giving him room to speak, for example, by gaze retraction. Discussion: The analysis offers insight into practices that allowed this PWA to achieve agency. Our findings show that communication partner training could benefit from implementing activities such as collaborative storytelling.

Culture of collaboration

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to report the results from a research project which focused on understanding how motivation to read is manifested and maintained in children with learning impairments. The participants were enrolled in a specialized university literacy program with graduate student clinicians. Method: An interpretative, qualitative study utilizing components of ethnography and microanalysis was employed to analyze video transcripts of recorded therapy sessions of speech-language pathology student clinicians and children with language disorders. These interactions were coded for the nature of their role in motivating children to read. Results and conclusions: This study revealed that a culture of collaboration was a hallmark of treatment that facilitated motivation in the participants. Two key characteristics of motivated behavior that emerged as a result of this culture of collaboration are identified and described. Additionally, three specific, collaborative, therapeutic strategies found to sustain motivation to read are described.

Facilitators’ use of a communication device following children’s aided turns in everyday interaction

This conversation analysis study investigates facilitators’ simultaneous use of speech and aided means in instructional interaction with children with complex communication needs (CCN), who use aided communication in an everyday setting. The participants were children with severe speech impairments and their everyday communication partners. The analysis focused on facilitators’ aided turns immediately following aided turns by the children, within so-called retro-sequences. Retro-sequences were found in interactions involving four out of nine children. The facilitators systematically combined a spoken turn with an aided turn, a speaking and pointing (SAP) practice. The pointing consisted of a single graphical word, mostly a noun. The multimodal practice generally highlighted, emphasized, or exposed graphical words that increased noticeability and understandability within the local context. Adult repeats were treated as requests for confirmation of a candidate understanding and were responded to by the child using vocal and embodied resources. Reformulations (recasts) were treated as profferings of candidate understandings and were responded to using the communication device. The findings indicate that the partner’s use of a spoken and aided follow-up action shaped the immediate context for device use. The findings are relevant for the design of naturalistic interventions and may be used to improve treatment descriptions in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions.

Impact of the design of visual communication supports on social interaction by individuals with Down syndrome

Many individuals with developmental disabilities have difficulty using speech as their primary method of communication. These individuals often use visual communication technologies that produce speech when symbols (letters, icons) are typed or selected. When an external aid is used to assist with message preparation, it is called aided augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The current report illustrates how the design of AAC displays can influence both the efficiency of visual attention to the displays, and also the rate and flexibility of communication produced by three young adults with Down syndrome while using these displays. We designed three versions of AAC displays that prior laboratory research has indicated would influence efficiency of visual attention. These displays were then each used to support communication during a storybook reading interaction between individuals with Down syndrome and a trained communication partner. Visual attention was measured via mobile eye-tracking technologies, and communication behavior was recorded via video camera. Greater efficiency of visual attention and more frequent and flexible communication was observed when the AAC display was optimally designed. The results illustrate the value of eye-tracking technologies for examining communication behavior using AAC.

Speech and language interventions for stroke-induced aphasia

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether the use of video recordings of interactions involving persons with aphasia and speech-language pathology students enhance students’ competence as conversation partners of people with communicative disabilities. A further aim was to explore the experiences and perspectives from the viewpoint of both participating students and persons with aphasia. Six persons with aphasia met 34 speech and language pathology students in pairs for 10 minutes of conversation. The video recordings were transcribed, in order to identify phenomena influencing the interaction. The students answered a questionnaire about the assignment. A semi-structured group interview with the aphasic individuals was conducted. The analyses of the conversations and the answers to the questionnaire revealed that the students gained important knowledge both on how aphasia may affect and limit aphasic individuals’ communicative activity and participation, and hands-on insights into how different interactional strategies may enhance aphasic individuals’ possibilities in interaction, but also highlighting behaviors that may be less beneficial. The persons with aphasia perceived the activity as important and rewarding. The results demonstrate the benefits of involving patients in health education and the students’ use of video recordings, transcriptions, and subsequent analysis.

Unmet wishes: A multimodal interaction analysis of the rejection of choice in assisted shopping interactions

In the field of health communication, it is increasingly important to understand the interactional management of free choice and the demands of (good) care, especially in situations where these two objectives conflict with each other. In a multimodal interaction analysis of video recordings, this article examines decision-making processes in which a caretaker refuses to retrieve a requested object for a woman living with acquired brain injury during their weekly shopping trip. The multimodal analysis describes both the sequential unfolding of these assisted shopping interactions and the interplay of multimodal resources used by the participants. The analysis demonstrates how choice is made available, despite communication impairments, and how the participants deal with the potential loss of face resulting from the caretaker’s rejections.