Mick Perkins

The interactional significance of formulas in autistic language

The phenomenon of echolalia in autistic language is well documented. Whilst much early research dismissed echolalia as merely an indicator of cognitive limitation, later work identified particular discourse functions of echolalic utterances. The work reported here extends the study of the interactional significance of echolalia to formulaic utterances. Audio and video recordings of conversations between the first author and two research participants were transcribed and analysed according to a Conversation Analysis framework and a multi‐layered linguistic framework. Formulaic language was found to have predictable interactional significance within the language of an individual with autism, and the generic phenomenon of formulaicity in company with predictable discourse function was seen to hold across the research participants, regardless of cognitive ability. The implications of formulaicity in autistic language for acquisition and processing mechanisms are discussed.

Williams syndrome and specific language impairment do not support claims for developmental double dissociations and innate modularity

Abstract It has been argued that Williams Syndrome (WS) and Specific Language Impairment (SLI) show developmental double dissociations. This has been put forward as an argument that language is a module which is biologically programmed and develops independently of other cognitive abilities. However there have been very few studies which have directly compared the two populations. In this article we compare individuals with WS with individuals with SLI on a number of verbal and non-verbal standardised tests as well as on their language abilities in a narrative task. The participants with WS performed similarly to the participants with SLI on the verbal standardised tests and in the narrative task (there were no significant differences between the two groups of participants) although they performed significantly lower on the non-verbal standardised tests in comparison to the participants with SLI. The results suggest that although there are dissociations between WS and SLI in the non-verbal domain, the two populations are very similar in the domain of morpho-syntax, hence there is no support for developmental double dissociations between these two populations.

Inflexibility as an interactional phenomenon: Using conversation analysis to re-examine a symptom of autism.

Many accounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) imply that the conditions behavioural ‘symptoms’ are direct reflexes of underlying deficits. In doing so, however, they invariably overlook the social contexts in which symptomatic behaviours occur and are identified as pathological. This study addresses this issue, using conversation analysis (CA) to examine the emergence of inflexibility, a behavioural trait symptomatic of ASD, during play involving an adult and diagnosed child. We argue that ‘inflexibility’ is the product of the childs strategic attempts to retain control over the unfolding interaction, within a context where such attempts breach normative expectations about adult–child play. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the adult does not resist these attempts, on occasion even explicitly providing opportunity for subsequent inflexibility. This challenges the assumption that ASDs behavioural profile solely represents the endpoint of underlying deficit, and demonstrates how ‘non-impaired’ speakers can be implicated in the manifestation of symptomatic behaviours.

Language and Conversational Abilities in Williams Syndrome: How Good is Good?

Grammatical performance of individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) has been reported as being unimpaired, despite their comparatively low IQ and poor general cognitive ability. Specific language impairment (SLI) is often seen as the converse of WS, showing poor linguistic ability relative to level of cognitive functioning. Detailed profiles of language functioning in four children with WS and four with SLI are presented which show a much less clear-cut picture than is often portrayed and suggest that children with WS may be less linguistically able than is commonly reported. A comparison of results on standardised tests with performance in real conversations shows that not only the children with SLI but also those with WS have significant linguistic difficulties. This has clear implications for their management by speech and language therapists.

Linguistic heterogeneity in Williams syndrome

Williams syndrome (WS) is a rare genetic disorder resulting from a deletion on chromosome 7. A number of studies have shown that individuals with WS have a superior linguistic profile compared to their non‐verbal abilities, however the evidence has been inconclusive, as many studies have disputed such a profile. The vast majority of studies on WS have assumed a single, homogeneous WS linguistic profile in order to support various theoretical viewpoints. The present study investigated the linguistic profiles of 5 individuals with WS on a number of standardized verbal measures and in conversational settings. The results indicated substantially variable performance in all aspects of the verbal domain, which supports the view that WS, linguistically, is a rather heterogeneous condition and this should be taken into consideration when referring to it in theoretical accounts of language acquisition and debates on modularity.

The co-development of speech and gesture in children with autism.

Recent interest in gesture has led to an understanding of the development of gesture and speech in typically developing young children. Research suggests that initially gesture and speech form two independent systems which combine together temporally and semantically before children enter the two‐word period of language development. However, little is known about gesture development in childrens disordered speech. This paper presents two case studies of young children with autism. The children are under 3 years of age and attend an intervention programme to facilitate their social and communication development. Early indications suggest that whilst both gesture and speech development is delayed in children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), the developmental trajectory is the same as for typically developing children.

A discursive psychology critique of semantic verbal fluency assessment and its interpretation

Semantic verbal fluency (SVF), a psychological assessment method used in experimental research and clinical practice, requires participants to produce as many words as possible from a given superordinate category (e.g., “animals,” “vehicles”). Features of responses, such as the prototypicality and ordering of items, are then interpreted as if revealing details about the organisation—or, in instances of ostensibly atypical performance, disorganisation—of participants’ underlying conceptual and/or semantic systems. In this paper, we draw upon perspectives from Discursive Psychology, particularly the work of Derek Edwards (e.g., Edwards, 1997), to argue against this position. Following critical discussion of SVF’s strongly cognitivist theoretical foundations, we present analyses of social interactions across various contexts, including the real-life administration of the paradigm with a child with autism, to suggest that performance is unavoidably socially mediated rather than solely internally driven. Our arguments challenge SVF’s validity and its role in the description of “cognitive disorder.”

Uncovering the dynamic in static assessment interaction

Traditional approaches to standardized assessment are underpinned by the assumption that between-assessor variation in delivery can effectively be eliminated. However, fine-grained analyses of the administration of such assessments (e.g. Maynard and Marlaire, 1992) have established that significant subtle interactional variations occur even in procedures with regimented protocols, and that such variations can demonstrably affect examinee performance. In this article we draw upon the Vygotskian thinking that underpins dynamic assessment (DA) to posit that these spontaneous variations may provide clinically relevant information about an examinee’s learning potential. To illustrate this possibility, we apply the methodology of conversation analysis to examine a real-life picture-naming task involving a child with autism. Complex interactional processes above and beyond what might be assumed to occur during assessment are identified. In interpreting these as significant for a deeper understanding of the child’s profile of abilities, we argue that there is clinical value in empirically re-examining routine assessment from alternative methodological perspectives.

Repetitiveness in language disorders: a new analytical procedure

A common feature of a wide range of language disorders is the tendency to repeat a particular linguistic form-or set of forms-with abnormal frequency. A brief overview is given of the different ways in which disordered language can be repetitive, and the nature of stereotyped and repetitive language is discussed in terms of the reciprocal relationship between frequency of occurrence and productivity. It is argued that measures such as lexical type-token ratio provide only a partial picture of repetitive language, and that linguistic units larger than the word also need to be taken into consideration. An analytical framework incorporating such units is proposed, which is able to characterize and quantify the extent to which a sample of language is repetitive independently of its aetiology. An illustrative analysis is given of a language sample from a brain-damaged adult, and the repetitiveness profiles of four different patients are compared.

Context and communication strategies in naturalistic behavioural intervention: A framework for understanding how practitioners facilitate communication in children with ASD

There are many different approaches to intervention aimed at facilitating the social and communicative abilities of children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Behavioural interventions seek to improve the social and communicative abilities of children with ASD through interaction. Recently there has been a move towards naturalistic behaviour-based interventions (NBI). Despite this trend there has been relatively little research into the mechanics of this approach. This study investigated an intervention programme aimed at pre-school children with ASD to identify, first, the different contexts of interaction during the intervention and, second, the communication strategies developed by the practitioners. Eight children were followed through the intervention programme, resulting in 21 hours of video data. Ten contexts of interaction were identified, including play, directed tasks and transitions. Practitioners combined structure and directiveness in their communication strategies. Six levels of directiveness were identified, ranging from observing to prompting. A distinction was made between emergent and imposed structures. The interaction strategies, within this dataset, which resulted in prolonged and varied discourse were based on dynamic emergent structures and in the mid range of the directiveness continuum. The findings are discussed with reference to how strategies may be identified and implemented by practitioners within NBI.