Strategies in conveying information about unshared events using aided communication

Kirsi A Neuvonen,Kristine Stadskleiv,Kaisa Launonen,Stephen Von Tetzchner,Martine M Smith

doi:10.1177/02656590211050865

Abstract

Describing events may be challenging for any child, but children who use communication aids may face unique linguistic, pragmatic, and strategic challenges in conveying information with the communication means they have available. This study explores strategies used by young, aided communicators when describing the content of a video unknown to their communication partners. The participants of the study were 48 aided communicators (aged 5;3–15;2) from nine countries and seven language groups and their communication partners (parents, professionals, and peers) who used natural speech. Descriptive and statistical analyses were utilized to investigate the relationships between individual characteristics, linguistic and non-linguistic factors, linguistic strategies, and performance in conveying the content of the video event. Analyses of the 48 videotaped interactions revealed the use of a variety of linguistic elements and multimodal strategies, demonstrating both creativity and challenges. Success in relaying messages was significantly related to age, mode of communication, and individual profiles, such as everyday communication functioning and comprehension of grammar. Measures of receptive vocabulary and non-verbal reasoning were not significantly related to communicative success. The use of shared context and negotiation of meaning of potentially ambiguous utterances demonstrate the shared responsibility of disambiguation and meaning construction in interactions involving aided and naturally speaking communicators.

Highlights

Event descriptions are an essential part of everyday conversations
The average score on classification of ideas expressed by the aided communicators was 4.1 (SD = 2.2) and of the ideas recast by the communication partners 3.9 (SD = 2.5)
The more precise the information provided by the aided communicators, the more likely it was that the communication partners were able to infer and recast what had happened in the video event

Summary

Introduction

Event descriptions are an essential part of everyday conversations. Besides competence with vocabulary and linguistic structures, event descriptions demand skills in constructing extended discourse and understanding how the listener may interpret what the communicator has expressed (Ninio and Snow, 1996). Describing events involving information that is unknown to the communication partner may be challenging for any child, but children who rely on aided modes of communication (e.g. spelling or graphic symbols; see von Tetzchner and Martinsen, 2000), may face unique challenges in expressing their ideas and thoughts through the communication means available to them. Interactions using aided communication have been described as time-consuming and sometimes effortful, often involving overt co-construction and collaboration among interactants (Clarke, 2016; Higginbotham et al, 2016; von Tetzchner and Martinsen, 1996). Aided communicators may have less communication experience and fewer opportunities for communication involving different topics, contexts and communication partners than their speaking peers (Clarke and Kirton, 2003; Soto and Starowicz, 2016)

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