Coconstructing in Conversations Using a Communication Book

Abstract

This study describes the multiple coconstruction process of aided utterances that occur when non-speaking people use a communication book in their everyday conversations. Previous studies have reported that coconstruction is present both in the progress of pointing-voicing pairs and in the negotiation of meanings. Adopting the concepts and the tools of multimodal conversation analysis, this study demonstrates how two non-speaking boys and their speech and language therapists utilized simultaneously six interactional resources that were interwoven in different multimodal practices during their coconstruction of aided utterances. The observations elicited by microanalysis provide an insight into the temporal, co-operative and progressive nature of conversations that are constructed with a communication book. The findings of this study are helpful for professionals in assessing and scaffolding aided communicators during their conversations with their significant communicative partners.