Autism, Communication, and Learning: Reaching mutual understanding in a learning situation

Leer, Tania Buhelt ; Henriksen, Mathilde Eriksen

4. term

Psychology, Master

2018

2018-05-31

171 pages

Societal issues of children with diagnoses not attending school, as well as recent literature, have highlighted the need for revising the perspective of deficits in children with ASD, to a new perspective of atypical interaction as having communicative functions. This study explores how mutual understanding is achieved through interaction in a learning situation between a mother and her child. The sample includes a six-year-old boy, diagnosed with autism, and his mother during home training of cognitively enhancing tasks. Using Conversation Analysis, this study researched the underlying components of the interaction in home videos of learning situations. Results showed that the mother maintained and controlled the setting and structure of the learning situation, using institutional sequence structure and attention repairs, which positively influenced the child’s engagement. However, a rigid preference organization and self-talk, resulted in a loss of attention. Furthermore, the results showed that the boy exhibited atypical actions, such as repetitive gestures, which served as a communicative purpose, and atypical conversational practices served as information seeking abilities. The results highlight the importance of mutual understanding in a learning situation, as this can be reached by understanding atypical conversation actions, rather than overcoming deficiencies.

Autisme ; kommunikation ; Læring ; meaning-making ; Conversations Analyse ; atypisk ; lærings situation ; inklusion

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