The hypothesis that a pervasive impairment of declarative memory contributes to language impairment in low functioning autism (LFA) was tested. Participants with LFA, high functioning autism (HFA), intellectual disability (ID) without autism, and typical development (TD) were given two recognition tests and four tests of lexical understanding. It was predicted that recognition would be impaired in the LFA group relative to the HFA and TD groups but not the ID group, and that recognition would correlate with lexical knowledge in the LFA group but none of the other groups. These predictions were supported except that the HFA group performed more similarly to the LFA group than expected, a finding interpreted in terms of selectively impaired episodic memory.
Many accounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) imply that the condition's behavioural 'symptoms' are direct reflexes of underlying deficits. In doing so, however, they invariably overlook the social contexts in which symptomatic behaviours occur and are identified as pathological. This study addresses this issue, using conversation analysis (CA) to examine the emergence of inflexibility, a behavioural trait symptomatic of ASD, during play involving an adult and diagnosed child. We argue that 'inflexibility' is the product of the child's strategic attempts to retain control over the unfolding interaction, within a context where such attempts breach normative expectations about adult-child play. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the adult does not resist these attempts, on occasion even explicitly providing opportunity for subsequent inflexibility. This challenges the assumption that ASD's behavioural profile solely represents the endpoint of underlying deficit, and demonstrates how 'non-impaired' speakers can be implicated in the manifestation of symptomatic behaviours.
A distinction has been drawn between basic (pure) conversation analysis (CA) and applied CA. Applied CA has become especially beneficial for informing areas of practice such as health, social care and education, and is an accepted form of research evidence in the scientific rhetoric. There are different ways of undertaking applied CA, with different foci and goals. In this article, we articulate one way of conducting applied CA, that is especially pertinent for practitioners working in different fields. We conceptualise this as Reflective Interventionist CA (RICA). We argue that this approach to applied CA is important because of its emphasis on the reflective stance that is valuable to an understanding of research data, its commitment to collaboration with practitioners, and its inductive style. In this paper, we outline the core premises and benefits of this approach and offer empirical examples to support our argument. To conclude, we consider the implications for evidence-based practice.
Semantic verbal fluency (SVF), a psychological assessment method used in experimental research and clinical practice, requires participants to produce as many words as possible from a given superordinate category (e.g., “animals,” “vehicles”). Features of responses, such as the prototypicality and ordering of items, are then interpreted as if revealing details about the organisation—or, in instances of ostensibly atypical performance, disorganisation—of participants’ underlying conceptual and/or semantic systems. In this paper, we draw upon perspectives from Discursive Psychology, particularly the work of Derek Edwards (e.g., Edwards, 1997), to argue against this position. Following critical discussion of SVF’s strongly cognitivist theoretical foundations, we present analyses of social interactions across various contexts, including the real-life administration of the paradigm with a child with autism, to suggest that performance is unavoidably socially mediated rather than solely internally driven. Our arguments challenge SVF’s validity and its role in the description of “cognitive disorder.”
Recent 'obesity' preventions focus heavily on children, widely regarded as the future of society. The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is a flagship government programme in England that annually measures the Body Mass Index (BMI) of children in Reception (aged 4-5) and Year 6 (aged 10-11) in order to identify 'at risk' children and offer advice to parents. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis this study explores how discourses within the programme construct fatness. The NCMP materials contain three key interrelated themes (concerning the hidden threat of 'obesity', the burden of 'obesity', and bodies that pose a greater risk) that combine to construct a 'grotesque discourse' of apocalyptic public health. 'Obesity' is constructed as a social and economic catastrophe where certain bodies pose a greater threat than others. We argue that this discourse has the potential to change health service policy in markedly regressive ways that will disproportionately impact working-class, Black, Asian, and mixed race families. Introduction: children, BMI, and biopower Recent decades have seen globally increasing media and medical concern over a socalled 'obesity epidemic', particularly among children (Hilton et al., 2012; Ogden et al.,
Traditional approaches to standardized assessment are underpinned by the assumption that between-assessor variation in delivery can effectively be eliminated. However, fine-grained analyses of the administration of such assessments (e.g. Maynard and Marlaire, 1992 ) have established that significant subtle interactional variations occur even in procedures with regimented protocols, and that such variations can demonstrably affect examinee performance. In this article we draw upon the Vygotskian thinking that underpins dynamic assessment (DA) to posit that these spontaneous variations may provide clinically relevant information about an examinee’s learning potential. To illustrate this possibility, we apply the methodology of conversation analysis to examine a real-life picture-naming task involving a child with autism. Complex interactional processes above and beyond what might be assumed to occur during assessment are identified. In interpreting these as significant for a deeper understanding of the child’s profile of abilities, we argue that there is clinical value in empirically re-examining routine assessment from alternative methodological perspectives.
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