Clarke, M., & Wilkinson, R. (2009). The collaborative construction of non-serious episodes of interaction by non-speaking children with cerebral palsy and their peers. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 23(8), 583–597. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699200802491132
This study examined how two speaking and two non-speaking children with cerebral palsy aged 10 to 14 years collaborated to engaging in non-serious episodes of interaction with their peers. While voice-output communication aides were present during interactions, they were not used in the highlighted excerpts. The non-speaking children demonstrated sensitivity to sequential placement as well as creativity in their use of nonverbal gestures and unintelligible vocalizations to provide opportunities to lead to non-serious talk. Despite the fact that these nonverbal contributions were equivocal, the speaking children responded to these non-linguistic resources secondary to the children’s disability by attributing a playful or naughty meaning to them. Displays of alignment and affiliation were further developed during non-serious episodes by the active and judicious use of non-speaking partners’ smiles, laughter, nodding and vocalizations.