Stribling2007

Stribling2007
BibType	ARTICLE
Key	Stribling2007
Author(s)	Penny Stribling, John Rae, Paul Dickerson
Title	Two Forms of Spoken Repetition in a Girl with Autism
Editor(s)
Tag(s)	EMCA, autism, echolalia, palilalia
Publisher
Year	2007
Language
City
Month
Journal	International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders
Volume	42
Number	4
Pages	427–444
URL	Link
DOI	10.1080/13682820601183659
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Background: The talk of persons with autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) often features distinctive forms of repetition (echophenomena). Although often characterized as meaningless or inappropriate, there is evidence that such practices can sometimes have communicative functions.

Aims: To investigate the interactional organization of repetition practices found in the talk of an adolescent girl with an ASD.

Methods & Procedures: As part of a project examining the interactional practices of children with ASD, we video‐recorded 6 hours of activity in a school classroom for severe learning difficulty (SLD) children. This paper considers instances of repeated talk produced by a class pupil, ‘Helen’. The analysis involved assembling a collection of examples of the repeated talk which were then transcribed in detail. Conversation Analysis was used to explore the sequential contexts in which they occur and precisely how they are produced.

Outcomes & Results: Two forms of repetition occur very frequently in Helen's talk: first, repeats of turn‐final lexical items from another speaker's immediately before talk (prior‐turn repeats, a form of immediate echolalia), and second, repeats of the first item within a turn such that a turn is produced consisting entirely of repeated items (within‐turn repeats). The latter appears to be a form of palilalia (repeats of one's own prior talk) that has not been widely reported in ASD. The prior turn repeats follow other speaker's initiating actions (e.g. questions) that are addressed specifically to Helen and make a response from her relevant. Helen apparently uses these to demonstrate that she has nevertheless heard, and is orienting to, that prior turn. Within‐turn repeats are tied to and bounded by the accomplishment of non‐vocal activities, e.g. handing an object to a co‐participant, such that the repetitions cease when the object has reached its recipient. The two forms of repetition frequently co‐occur to display on‐going engagement with a recipient's prior turn.

Conclusions: Although Helen has limited verbal resources she is more interactionally competent than this may initially suggest. We propose that these repetition practices may constitute an adaptation to interacting with a limited lexicon. We discuss the relevance of Conversational Analysis for understanding autistic children's pragmatic competence, and the implications for remediation and further research.

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