Failed Negotiations on Requests of Prelinguistic Children with Severe Mental Retardation : Examining Children's Concern for Adult's Responses and Their Communicative Functions

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  • 重度精神遅滞児の前言語的要求伝達における交渉の不成立 : 大人の応答に対する子供の関心、及び応答の機能の検討
  • ジュウド セイシン チタイジ ノ ゼンゲンゴテキ ヨウキュウ デンタツ ニ

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Abstract

A previous study by the present author indicated that minimum negotiation on a child's request would fail if the negotiation was between an adult and a prelinguistic child with severe mental retardation. "Minimum negotiation" means a chain of three turns consisting of the child's communicative attempt, the adult's offering an interpretation of it, and the child's expressing acceptance of what was offered. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the mechanism of this failure. Data from four adult-child dyadic interactions in which the child requested an object or action were analyzed in terms of the child's concern for the adult's responses and their communicative functions. The child's concern for the adult's responses was examined in terms of the direction of the child's gaze during the initial gesture and turn floor provision after that, and the topography of the child's mand behavior after the adult's response, including direct action, handling, repetition of an initial gesture such as hand pressing, and addition of the other gestures. The adult's responses were classified into immediate satisfaction of the child's demand, looking at the child, and verbal responses. Verbal responses were divided into obliging ones, such as a request for confirmation or clarification, and non-obliging ones that acknowledged the child's request or offered some interpretation of it. The results showed three typical patterns of failure: (1) an attempt at negotiation, where the child would not provide an opportunity to respond, so that the adult, accordingly, would satisfy the child's demand immediately after the child's gesture: (2) misfired negotiation, where the child would neglect the adult's response by choosing direct action or handling: and (3) deadlocked negotiation, where the adult would request the child to confirm or clarify the child's demand and the child could not help repeating the initial gesture or using additional gestures, being unable to confirm or clarify. Although two of the four children, who were in a relatively lower developmental status, fell under the first two patterns (one in each), the other two children, whose developmental status was relatively high, showed the third pattern. However, these three patterns could not describe all the cases. For example, the adult frequently satisfied the child's demand immediately, even when the child had provided a response opportunity. Another unanswered question was why the adult would request confirmation or clarification, when it was apparently easy for the adult to recognize the child's difficulty in fulfilling that request. Further investigation is needed to answer these questions.

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