Autism, Communication, and Learning: Reaching mutual understanding in a learning situation
Translated title
Autism, Communication, and Learning
Authors
Leer, Tania Buhelt ; Henriksen, Mathilde Eriksen
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2018
Submitted on
2018-05-31
Pages
171
Abstract
Stigende bekymring over børn med diagnoser, der ikke går i skole, sammen med ny forskning, har skabt behov for at flytte fokus fra at se adfærd hos børn med autisme som mangler til at se nogle atypiske samspil som meningsfuld kommunikation. Dette studie undersøger, hvordan en mor og hendes seksårige søn med autisme opnår gensidig forståelse, når de arbejder med hjemmebaserede opgaver, der skal styrke kognitive færdigheder. Vi analyserede hjemmevideoer med Samtaleanalyse (Conversation Analysis), en metode der nøje undersøger, hvordan mennesker organiserer tale og handling i samspil. Moderen etablerede og styrede læringskonteksten og holdt en tydelig struktur ved at bruge institutionelle sekvensstrukturer (formelle, trinvise måder at organisere ture på) og opmærksomhedsreparationer (små justeringer for at genvinde opmærksomhed). Disse greb støttede drengens engagement. Omvendt var en meget rigid præferenceorganisation (en stærk styring mod bestemte svar) og selvsnak forbundet med tab af opmærksomhed. Drengens atypiske handlinger, såsom gentagne bevægelser, havde kommunikative formål, og hans utraditionelle samtaletræk fungerede som måder at søge information på. Resultaterne understreger, at gensidig forståelse i læring opstår, når atypiske samtalehandlinger behandles som signaler, der skal tolkes og besvares, frem for som problemer, der skal overvindes.
Growing concern about children with diagnoses who do not attend school, together with recent research, has prompted a shift from viewing behavior in autism as deficits to seeing some atypical interaction as meaningful communication. This study explores how a mother and her six-year-old son with autism achieve mutual understanding while working on home-based tasks designed to build cognitive skills. We analyzed home videos with Conversation Analysis, a method that closely examines how people organize talk and action in interaction. The mother set up and managed the learning context and kept a clear structure, using institutional sequence structures (formal, stepwise ways of organizing turns) and attention repairs (small adjustments to regain attention). These practices supported the child’s engagement. In contrast, a very rigid preference organization (strongly steering toward certain responses) and self-talk were linked to a loss of attention. The boy’s atypical actions, such as repetitive movements, served communicative purposes, and his nonstandard conversational moves functioned as ways of seeking information. The findings underscore that mutual understanding in learning emerges when atypical conversational actions are treated as signals to be interpreted and responded to, rather than problems to be overcome.
[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]
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