Dindar, K., Korkiakangas, T., Laitila, A., & Eija Kärnä. (2016). Building mutual understanding: How children with autism spectrum disorder manage interactional trouble. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 7(1), 49–77. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v7i1.28228
This study examined how interactional troubles are addressed in conversations with three students with a variety of disabilities (e.g., ASD, ASD + ID, ID + autistic features), with and without complex communication needs (CCN), and their adult assistants or researchers. Students with ASD who do not have CCN were observed to use verbal resources to initiate repairs in understanding by accounting for their activities or repeating their contribution. During other interactional trouble, little time was provided for the student to respond to clarifications or alternate choices, leading the student to withdraw from the interaction. In interactions with a student with ASD and CCN, the adult successfully used sequential context to attribute repair initiations to both atypical (e.g., head scratching and visual search) and typical nonverbal actions (e.g., pointing and gazing at partner). However, in other instances, the sequential context appeared insufficient for the adult to interpret the nature of the difficulty due to the lack of specificity in the child’s repair initiation. While missing or overlooking a child’s request for assistance led to the child’s withdrawal from an interaction, adulty sensitivity and flexibility in interpreting nonverbal behaviors over multiple attempts was noted as successfully building mutual understanding.