Making Meaning Together: Embodied narratives in a case of severe autism

Abstract

Human narrative understanding is co-created in imaginative projects and experiences displayed in serially organised expressions of gesture and voice. Shared timing of reciprocal actions develop between two or more persons in narrative events that build over cycles in a four-part structure of ‘introduction’, ‘development’, ‘climax’, and ‘conclusion’. Pre-linguistic narrative establishes the foundation of later, linguistic intelligence. Yet, participating in social interactions that give rise to narrative development is a central problem of autism spectrum disorder. In this paper, we examine the rapid growth of narrative meaning-making between a non-verbal young woman with severe autism and her new therapist. Episodes of embodied, shared understanding were enabled through a basic therapeutic mode of reciprocal, creative mirroring of expressive gesture. These developed through reciprocal cycles and as the relationship progressed, complete co-created narratives were formed resulting in shared joy and the mutual interest and trust of companionship. These small, embodied stories enabled moments of co-regulated arousal that the young woman had previous difficulty with. These data provide evidence for an intact capacity for non-verbal narrative meaning-making in autism.

Neonatal Participation in Neonatal Imitation: Narrative in Newborn Dialogues

“…Whilst this is often considered to be the typical narrative format for an interaction, it is important to bear in mind that the order and duration of these phases can vary depending on multiple factors. Often an entire narrative structure may not be successfully created in a single attempt, and an interaction will instead be formed of multiple broken narratives which might gradually build until a complete narrative structure is achieved (Delafield-Butt et al, 2018). The exact make-up of the four-part structure can also vary dramatically, with for example, multiple climaxes within a single cycle.…”