The impact of co-occurring communicative impairments on the understandability of atypical speakers’ talk

Abstract

Contributing to conversation analytic research into ‘atypical interaction’ (i.e. naturally-occurring interactions involving one or more participants with a communication disorder), this paper focuses on talk by individuals who present with both aphasic (language) impairments and other communicative impairments (motor, motor programming or cognitive in nature). It shows how, in three such cases, the co-occurring impairments may each contribute to turns at talk by the atypical speaker which are particularly problematic in terms of their understandability. In each case these trouble source turns result in (1) the production of other-initiations of repair by the recipient which are ‘off track’, and (2) repair sequences which are notably prolonged. This type of investigation fills a gap in existing atypical interaction research where most analysis has focused on the impact of individual communicative impairments on talk-in-interaction.

Kommunikationsassistenz in Gesprächssituationen mit Menschen mit komplexem Unterstützungsbedarf

“…Nichts zu tun und abzuwarten, ob sich das Problem von selbst löst oder unbearbeitet bleiben kann (‚wait-and-see' Strategie, Goodwin, Schlegloff & Ochs, 1995) führt dann aber dazu, dass der Redebeitrag der Person mit Unterstützungsbedarf zumindest teilweise unverstanden bleibt. Dadurch wird der weitere Gesprächsverlauf gestört und Missverständnisse ‚schaukeln sich' regelrecht auf (Walton, Antaki & Finlay, 2020 ;Wilkinson, 2020). [13] Aufgrund der oben beschriebenen Problemfelder der Kommunikation und unterschiedlicher Lebenswelten von unterstützt sprechenden Menschen und ihren Unterstützungspersonen fällt es Unterstützungspersonen nicht immer leicht, sich in die Person hineinzuversetzen und tatsächlich Gemeintes zu antizipieren.…”

Interactional Adjustment: Three Approaches in Language and Social Psychology

“…Similar to CAT, DPCA has examined social interactions in a broad range of naturalistic and contrived (for the research) settings involving different populations s. There are considerable literatures on interactions amongst children (Butler, 2008) and in atypical populations (Wilkinson et al, 2020). Medical encounters have also been examined from this microanalytic approach (Heritage & Maynard, 2006).…”