Clarke, M. T., Soto, G., & Nelson, K. (2017). Language learning, recasts, and interaction involving AAC: Background and potential for intervention. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 33(1), 42–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2016.1278130
This study, a qualitative sequential analysis drawing on the principles of conversation analysis, examined the use of adult recasts within an intervention context focused on expressive language with children aged 8-14 years with a range of developmental disabilities who use AAC. In response to adults’ verbal recasts in the form of questions, some children treated the action as a request for clarification rather than a correction, providing a nonverbal affirmation or rejection. Declarative recasts that used prosody to emphasize differences were treated by children as corrective, as evidenced by children redoing or repairing prior utterances. Interrogative multi-move recasts (e.g., Camp rock is movie or is a movie?) were observed to further constrain the child’s response, increasing the likelihood of an immediate repair. Although recasts are typically defined as immediately following a child utterance, this study documented evidence that co-construction in AAC-mediated conversations may result in recasts being offset from the child’s turn, being postponed until after the adult either provides receipt of the child’s contribution or a clarification request of the child’s intended meaning.