自閉症児の言語獲得をめぐる相互行為系列

――療育実践場面の分析を通して――

抄録

It is generally pointed out that some children with autistic spectrum disorder have problems in language acquisition and operation. Many of these children receive clinical care at special facilities. If we tried to understand their linguistic competence from a psychological, medical viewpoint, we could deal with their competences objectively as measurable and appraisable ones. We may discover a relationship between their linguistic competence and cognitive function defects. As long as we follow this perspective, we would say that “the linguistic problems of some children with autistic spectrum disorder” exist objectively. However, first of all, it is thought that managing the way of competences is the problems for the participants in the setting. On the basis of this kind of concern, this article explores how participants focus and manage the linguistic competences of such children, paying special attention to interactional sequences during the clinical care.

This article consists of four parts. In the first, I present the aim of the article and some advanced researches. In the second chapter I give a summary of the investigation, and make a preliminary examination of the interactional sequences in clinical care. Further developing the IRE (initiation-reply-evaluation) sequence described by H. Mehan, I present those special sequences as an IRQAE (initiation-reply-question-answer-evaluation) sequence.

In the third part I present a concrete analysis. I describe a setting in which a therapist tries to help a child with autistic spectrum disorder with language acquisition. The child, a 7-year-old boy, has an intellectual disability and has difficulty understanding conversation smoothly. He is unable to answer properly the therapist’s questions. The therapist gives a negative evaluation to that answer, and asks the same thing repeatedly. In this interaction, IRQAE sequences recur many times.

The analysis clarifies the following things. (1) Participants (especially therapists) regard the IRQAE sequence as a kind of procedure for instructing new methods of language operation. By using such sequence, the therapist tries to improve the child’s understanding capacity. (2) In the setting, the therapist commits two failures. One is that he is wrong about the child’s competence. The task which the therapist assigns to the child is too difficult. Another is related to their participation frames. This has been pointed out by other therapists during data-sessions. During the session, many therapists claim that the participant’s body arrangement makes it difficult for that child to understand the situation. (3) By examining conversational sequences in detail, it becomes clear that the therapist uses various devices. Through such devices, he somehow tries to instruct appropriate word usage to the child.

In the fourth chapter I discuss the meaning of the setting for language acquisition by children with autistic spectrum disorder and clinical care. In this article I conclude that the reason why the therapist requires the child to be “able” to answer appropriately is related to three factors: (1) the situational organization for the participants (i. e. , the place is meant for training), (2) the therapist has some instructions for improving the child’s competence, and (3) the therapist believes in the child’s future developmental potential.