英文摘要 |
Purpose: Although difficulties in communication have been identified as the core features of children with mild autism spectrum disorder, scholars have not been discouraged from understanding the patterns of communication of these children. The apparent opposition to observing the communicative performance of children with mild autism spectrum disorder requires further exploration. Reconsidering the predominant viewpoint of deviation from the norm regarding the functional discrepancies in the communication of children with mild autism spectrum disorder, this study explored the features of interpersona l interaction of these children at the lived-experience level to reconceptualize the perceived deficits of these children. Methods: A qualitative method involving pragmatic tools was employed in analyzing the research data. The data were generated using the following steps: First, 5 fourth- and fifth-grade elementary students in a social interaction training group for children with mild autism spectrum disorder were selected as the subjects of observation. Second, the researcher attended all of the 13 group sessions and wrote field notes describing the interactions of the 5 participants with trainers and other children. Third, the interactions of each participant were described by integrating the field notes, which were verified by a co-observer together with the field videos. Fourth, the descriptions were qualitatively analyzed using 4 pragmatic tools: turn taking, adjacency pairs, speech acts, and an indexical. Finally, the interactive pragmatic features of the 5 participants were analyzed and categorized into several general patterns of communication. Results/Findings: First, no significant destruction in conversational action sequences were observed; the 5 participants engaged in conversation with others. Second, the words used during conversations were satisfactorily comprehended by all of the 5 participants, compared with the other children. In other words, no misinterpretation of word meaning by the 5 participants was observed. Finally, all 5 participants showed, although in distinct manners and at different degree, incompatible responses to the ongoing conversational contexts. This feature in communication was named contextual incompatibility in this study and indicated contextual mismatch when children with mild autism spectrum disorder engaged in conversations with others. Conclusions/Implications: The perceived difficulties in communication of children with mild autism spectrum disorder resulted from a discrepancy between congruent conversational actions and incongruent referential contexts when the participants engaged in conversations with others. This understanding provides a new approach to conceptualizing the perceived deficits of children. Further discussion on the research results and suggestions for future study are provided. |