Expectations and interpretations of conversations using aided communication

An application of relevance theory

Authors

  • Kirsi A. Neuvonen University of Helsinki
  • Caroline Jagoe Trinity College, Dublin
  • Kaisa Launonen University of Helsinki
  • Martine M. Smith Trinity College, Dublin
  • Stephen von Tetzchner University of Oslo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.20364

Keywords:

Aided communication, Communication partners, Co-construction, Relevance theory

Abstract

Background: Reaching mutual understanding can sometimes be challenging in interactions involving communicators using aided communication. This explorative qualitative study offers insights into some of the features of utterance interpretation and meaning negotiation in interactions using graphic communication systems.

Method: Relevance theory was applied as a framework for analysis of conversations between a non-speaking child using a communication aid and her communication partners using natural speech.

Results: Through analysis of a series of videotaped conversations, several assumptions and contextual implications affecting the interpretation processes were identified. A tendency to organize interpretations according to contextual expectations and scripts emerged as a central explanatory factor in co-constructing meanings from available graphic utterances.

Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of understanding factors that may affect the interpretation processes of all participants in interactions involving aided communication.

Author Biographies

  • Kirsi A. Neuvonen, University of Helsinki

    Kirsi Neuvonen, MA, is a speech and language therapist, who is currently working toward her PhD in logopedics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests are the co-construction and meaning-negotiation strategies of young aided communicators and their speaking communication partners. She is particularly interested in enhancing the communication skills of young children who are unable to develop speech.

  • Caroline Jagoe, Trinity College, Dublin

    Caroline Jagoe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Speech and Language Studies, Trinity College, University of Dublin. Clinical pragmatics is a particular focus of her work and she situates herself as a relevance theorist, working on applications to conversational data involving people with communication disabilities. She has a particular interest in optimizing communication access for those with communication disabilities and has been involved in projects in countries as diverse as Ireland, South Africa, and Iraq

  • Kaisa Launonen, University of Helsinki

    Kaisa Launonen, PhD, is a speech and language therapist by education. Her clinical work focuses on people with intellectual disabilities. Her main research interests are early intervention, people with the most severe communication disabilities, and augmentative and alternative communication, manual signs, and other unaided communication forms, in particular. She works at the University of Helsinki as a university lecturer and the director of the BA and MA program in logopedics.

  • Martine M. Smith, Trinity College, Dublin

    Martine Smith, PhD, is Professor in Speech Language Pathology at Trinity College, University of Dublin, Ireland. Her research and clinical work focuses on exploring the language, communication, and interaction of children and adults with severe speech impairments who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). A former editor of the AAC Journal, she has published widely, with over 50 peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters, and a recently co-edited volume, The silent partner: Language, interaction and aided communication, with Professor Janice Murray.

  • Stephen von Tetzchner, University of Oslo

    Stephen von Tetzchner is Professor Emeritus of Developmental Psychology and School Psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway. His research includes a wide range of issues related to typical and atypical development in general, and communication and language development in particular, including intervention for children and young people with intellectual impairment, motor impairment, deafness, blindness, Rett syndrome, Tourette syndrome, and autism spectrum disorder.

References

Bloch, S., and Wilkinson, R. (2004). The understandability of AAC: A conversation analysis study of acquired dysarthria. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 20, 272–282. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610400005614

Brekke, K. M., and von Tetzchner, S. (2003). Co-construction in graphic language development. In S. von Tetzchner and N. Grove (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: Developmental issues (pp. 176–210). London: Whurr/Wiley.

Carston, R. (2002). Thoughts and utterances: The pragmatics of explicit communication. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470754603

Carston, R. (2015). Contextual adjustment of meaning. In N. Riemer (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of semantics (pp. 211–226). Abingdon: Routledge.

Clark, E. V. (2004.) Pragmatics and language acquisition. In L. R. Horn and G. Ward (Eds.), Handbook of pragmatics (pp. 562–577). Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756959.ch25

Clarke, M., and Wilkinson, R. (2007). Interaction between children with cerebral palsy and their peers 1: Organizing and understanding VOCA use. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 23, 336–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610701390350

Clarke, M. T., Soto, G., and Nelson, K. (2017). Language learning, recasts, and interaction involving AAC: Background and potential for intervention. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 33, 42–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2016.1278130

Collins, S. (1996). Referring expressions in conversations between aided and natural speakers. In S. von Tetzchner and M. H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 89–100). London: Whurr/Wiley.

Collins, S., and Marková, I. (1999). Interaction between impaired and unimpaired speakers: Inter-subjectivity and the interplay of culturally shared and situation specific knowledge. British Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 339–368. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466699164211

Cummings, L. (1998). The scientific reductionism of relevance theory: The lesson from logical positivism. Journal of Pragmatics, 29, 9–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(97)00049-0

Fuller, D. R., Lloyd, L. L., and Stratton, M. M. (1997). Aided AAC symbols. In L. L. Lloyd, D. R. Fuller, and H. H. Arvidson (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication. A Handbook of principles and practices (pp. 48–79). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Giora, R. (1997). Discourse coherence and theory of relevance: Stumbling blocks in search of a unified theory. Journal of Pragmatics, 27, 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(95)00065-8

Hjelmquist, E., and Dahlgren Sandberg, A. (1996). Sounds and silence: Interaction in aided language use. In S. von Tetzchner and M. H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 137–152). London: Whurr/Wiley.

Hoag, L. A., Bedrosian, J. L., McCoy, K. F., and Johnson, D. E. (2008). Hierarchy of conversational rule violations involving utterance-based augmentative and alternative communication systems. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 24, 149–161. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610802038288

Horn, L. R. (2004). Implicature. In L. R. Horn and G. Ward (Eds.), Handbook of pragmatics (pp. 3–28). Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1111/b.9780631225485.2005.00003.x

Jacoby, S., and Ochs, E. (1995). Co-construction: An introduction. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 28, 171–183. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi2803_1

Jagoe, C. (2015). Collaborative meaning-making in delusional talk as a search for mutual manifestness: A relevance theory approach. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 6, 53–70. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v6i1.53

Jagoe, C., and Smith, M. M. (2016). Relevance in the context of multimodality and aided communication. In M. M. Smith and J. Murray (Eds.), The silent partner? Language, interaction and aided communication (pp. 229–246). Surrey: J&R Press.

Light, J. L. (2003). Shattering the silence. In J. L. Light., D. R. Beukelman, and J. Reichle (Eds.), Communicative competence for individuals who use AAC. From research to effective practice (pp. 3–38). Baltimore: Brookes.

Mayer-Johnson, R., Mayer-Watt, S., Cologne, A., and Bushen, T. (1993). The picture communication symbols: PCS book I and II combined. Solana Beach: Mayer-Johnson Co.

McCoy, K. F., Bedrosian, J. L., Hoag, L. A., and Johnson, D. E. (2007). Brevity and speed of message delivery trade-offs in augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 23, 76–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610600924515

Murray, J., Dahlgren Sandberg, A., Smith, M. M., Deliberato, D., Stadskleiv, K., and von Tetzchner, S. (2018). Communicating the unknown: Descriptions of pictured scenes and events presented on video by children and adolescents using aided communication and their peers using natural speech. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 34, 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2017.1420690

Nerlich, B., and Clarke, D. D. (2001). Ambiguities we live by: Towards a pragmatics of polysemy. Journal of Pragmatics, 33, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00132-0

Neuvonen, K. A., Launonen, K., Smith, M. M., and von Tetzchner, S. (2018). Extending and narrowing – developing ways of utilizing graphic symbols. Paper presented at the 18th Biennial Conference of ISAAC, July 23–26, Gold Coast, Australia.

Palisano, R. J., Rosenbaum, P., Walter, S., Russel, D., Wood, E., and Galuppi, B. (1997). Development and reliability of a system to classify gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 39, 214–223. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8749.1997.tb07414.x

Porter, G., and Cafiero, J. M. (2009). Pragmatic Organization Dynamic Display (PODD) communication books: A promising practice for individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 18, 121–129. https://doi.org/10.1044/aac18.4.121

Rommetveit, R. (1974). On message structure: A framework for the study of language and communication. Oxford: Wiley.

Smith, M. M. (2015). Language development of individuals who require aided communication: Reflections on state of the science and future research directions. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 31, 215–233. https://doi.org/10.3109/07434618.2015.1062553

Solomon-Rice, P., and Soto, G. (2011). Co-construction as a facilitative factor in supporting the personal narratives of children who use augmentative and alternative communication. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 32, 70–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525740109354776

Soto, G., Hartmann, E., and Wilkins, D. P. (2006). Exploring the elements of narrative that emerge in the interactions between an 8-year-old child who uses an AAC device and her teacher. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 22, 231–241. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610500431777

Sperber, D., and Wilson, D. (1986). Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Sperber, D., and Wilson, D. (1995). Postface to the second edition of Relevance: Communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Sutton, A., Trudeau, N., Morford, J., Rios, M., and Poirier, M. A. (2010). Preschool-aged children have difficulty constructing and interpreting simple utterances composed of graphic symbols. Journal of Child Language, 37, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000909009477

Turner, M. (1996). The literary mind: The origins of thought and language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

von Tetzchner, S. (2015). The semiotics of aided language development. Cognitive Development, 36, 180–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2015.09.009

von Tetzchner, S. (2018). Introduction to the special issue on aided language processes, development and use: An international perspective. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 34, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434618.2017.1422020

von Tetzchner, S., and Basil, C. (2011). Terminology and notation in written representations of conversations with augmentative and alternative communication. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 27, 141–149. https://doi.org/10.3109/07434618.2011.610356

von Tetzchner, S., and Martinsen, H. (1996). Words and strategies: Conversations with young children who use aided language. In S. von Tetzchner and M. H. Jensen (Eds.), Augmentative and alternative communication: European perspectives (pp. 65–88). London: Whurr/Wiley.

Wilson, D., and Sperber, D. (2002). Truthfulness and relevance. Mind, 111(443), 583–632. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/111.443.583

Wilson, D., and Sperber, D. (2004). Relevance theory. In L. R. Horn and G. Ward (Eds.), The handbook of pragmatics (pp. 607–632). Oxford: Blackwell.

Wisenburn, B., and Higginbotham, D. J. (2009). Participant evaluations of rate and communication efficacy of an AAC application using natural language processing. Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 25, 78–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/07434610902739876

Downloads

Published

2021-06-17

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

© Equinox Publishing Ltd.

For information regarding our Open Access policy, click here.

How to Cite

Neuvonen, K. A. ., Jagoe, C. ., Launonen, K., Smith, M. M., & von Tetzchner, S. (2021). Expectations and interpretations of conversations using aided communication: An application of relevance theory. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 10(2), 125–152. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.20364