Perseverative storytelling in autism as an interactional phenomenon

Background: Topic perseveration is often considered to be an autistic trait observable in more verbally able individuals with autism. However, the phenomenon has been subject to little empirical research. The aim of the present article is to explore the organization of perseverative talk within the context of autistic storytellings. Method: A conversation analytic approach offers insights into the ways in which two adults with autism initiate, develop, and pursue storytellings in naturally occurring interactions. Moreover, the co-participants’ management of the apparently perseverative autistic talk is brought into focus. Results: The findings show that the two storytellings investigated here are successfully launched and initiated with a subtle sensitivity to the local environments of the ongoing interaction. Furthermore, the adults with autism develop and pursue their tellings with an orientation to the co-participants’ display of structural support of the storytelling activity (alignment). However, the autistic tellers pursue their stories despite recipients’ display of disinterest in their projects (disaffiliation). In both cases, story closure is initiated by the recipients, who treat the tellings as sequentially non-implicative actions. Discussion/conclusion: The findings propose that perseverative storytellings are locally and collaboratively managed social activities, developed on a turn-by-turn basis in natural interaction. The study argues that recipients’ feedback, both mid-telling and post-telling, contributes to the perseverative character of the tellings. This interpersonal approach to perseveration suggests that the most common intrapersonal conceptualizations of the phenomenon need to be refined to some extent.