Neurodivergence in Non-Lang Specific
The Communicative Burden
(with a focus on neurodivergency)
PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Communication and Autism | Image
This illustration provides a reference point for many of the possible things going on inside the head of a neurodivergent individual (in this case, particularly an autistic individual) during the act of communication. Some of these things include trying to maintain eye contact, providing unrelated answers questions that seem pragmatically straightforward on the part of the neurotypical speaker (creating pragmatic mismatching), attempting to process what kind of answer the speaker is looking for, thinking about the answer they gave (some hints of possible fixations are included here), attempting to interpret gestures, body language, and expressions (which can be difficult for many neurodivergent individuals, particularly those on the autism spectrum), and attempting to decide on appropriate gestures of their own (while avoiding inappropriate ones).
Neurodiversity – the key that unlocked my world | YouTube Video
Elisabeth Wiklander discusses her experience as a neurodiverse person. She was diagnosed with Asperger's at the age of 28, which gave her clarity about her behavior and thought processes.In terms of communication, Wilkander describes how she has a direct communication style and often misinterprets sarcasm and the subtleties of conversation. For Wiklander, a diagnosis helped her learn how to navigate the world, but she couldn’t have reached her full potential without the support of the people around her. She argues that compassion, tolerance, and acceptance are necessary in order to support neurodiversity and help people thrive. This resource describes some of the problems that many neurodivergent people have with indirectness and sarcasm. It also reiterates the idea that compassion and respect are needed for effective communication
Accommodations | Image
This is an illustrated statement made by an autistic individual on the importance of communication between neurotypical and neurodivergent individuals being a two-way street. In other words, it is important that the neurotypical individual make accommodations, too, in order for there to be coconstruction between the two parties. As the statement points out, neurodivergent individuals are generally expected to make accommodations, while neurotypical individuals are generally free to decide whether they choose to make accommodations or not.
Learning Each Other’s Language | Article
Susan Wilczynski discusses what she has learned from her friend, Mary, about effective communication between neurodiverse speakers and neurotypical speakers. She explains that in order to avoid misunderstandings, both parties need to show mutual respect, build trust, and understand that misinterpretations will still happen. She also talks about the need for direct communication because people with autism often have very literal minds.
How a conversation can help change the world | YouTube Video
Helen Needham is an autistic neurodiversity advocate. She describes her life as being part of a neurodiverse family. She founded Me Decoded, a website built to connect neurodivergent people and allies through blog posts. In her talk, Needham explains that it is important to embrace neurodiversity in the community and in the workplace because it will encourage change for the better. And, in order to do that we need to make small changes and understand that accommodations are necessary in order to support the people around us. Needham’s TED Talk emphasizes the idea that small changes by neurotypical people can ameliorate misunderstandings.
Accommodation Comic | Image
This graphic illustrates why it is so important for neurotypical individuals to accommodate neurodivergent individuals in interaction and communication. Neurodivergent individuals spend their whole lives making accommodations for a predominantly neurotypical (or neurotypically biased) world. As such, they generally do most of the accommodation and, for healthy communication and co-construction, neurotypical individuals must do their part and meet them halfway. This graphic also includes some of the neurotypical expectations often imposed on neurodivergent individuals.
What it feels like to be autistic | YouTube Video
This video is presented by Temple Grandin, a well known individual with autism who gives a view into the perspective of life from the point of view of a neurodivergent individual. She discusses her visual processing, mental categorization, and her logical focus. She also discusses the autism spectrum and the ways in which that presents and how life for an autistic individual can be difficult due to misunderstanding and miscommunication as well as social stigmas.
Best practices for communicating with neurodiverse employees | Article
This webpage is written for employers. It provides advice on how to communicate with neurodivergent employees and create inclusiveness for everyone. The four main pieces of advice are to “communicate clearly with straightforward language”, “embrace the honesty”, “Pace the flow of information”, and to “be mindful of sensitivities”. This article provides clear information about communication, focusing on the responsibility of the neurotypical speaker.
Dear Parents: Your Child With Autism Is Perfect | Article
“The desire to be perceived as successful, sociable and in control harms society and alienates us from one another. Yet people are more likely to silence the person with autism for screaming for help than they are going to listen.” This is a quote directly from the article which touches on some of the communication-based issues that this source was chosen for. While this article is mostly a message to parents of autistic children on the positive traits of their neurodivergent children, there are aspects of neurodivergent communication contained within which can also be used by neurotypical individual who is not the child’s parent (or even in relation to an adult) in order to help build understanding and compassion for these alternative points of view.
Communication between the Neurodiverse and the Neurotypical | Blog Post
Dr. Maricia Eckerd provides advice on communication between neurodivergent people and neurotypical people. Eckerd explains that many neurodivergent people might misinterpret the meanings behind indirect phrases because they have literal minds. Even with mutual caring and love, misunderstandings will happen. She provides neurotypical individuals with the following advice “Getting past the communication barrier might first fall on the neurotypical to be clear and listen to the response of the neurodiverse person; experiencing respect and acceptance rather than blame can make it less tense and easier for the neurodiverse person to communicate as well.”. This article provides support for the need for directness and the need for accommodation.
9 Things Autistic People Want You to Know About Communication Differences | Article
Ellen Stumbo discusses some of the common problems people with autism have with communication and what neurotypical people can do to help. Stumbo collected responses from the neurodivergent community at The Mighty into a list of nine of the most common responses. Perhaps most relevant for this project is that many of the respondents expressed the need for directness and clarity, their literal mindsets, and the need for patience within a conversation.
Everyday Asperger's | Image
This is a statement by an individual with aspergers (a mild form of autism) on the difficulties that they face in communication and interaction with neurotypical individuals. They discuss what makes them uncomfortable, how they tend to get nervous, and the need they feel to try to mimic and fit in with the situation in order to pass a neurotypical, just to be able to survive a conversation. The statement also mentions what the neurotypical individual might do that could make the situation more difficult for the neurodivergent member(s) of the conversation. These suggest some very easy to implement changes in practice on the part of a neurotypical individual when interacting with a neurodivergent individual.
The Double Empathy Problem: Developing Empathy and Reciprocity in Neurotypical Adults | Article
This blog post does not deal with language directly, but it calls attention to the double empathy problem. This theory essentially states that two people with very different experiences will have difficulties empathizing with one another. The author, Ryan Boren, asks neurotypical individuals to make an effort to empathize with the neurodivergent perspective by listening to their stories. Boren has also written posts in which he gives advice about developing empathy (https://multiculturalyou.com/2020/06/22/direct-and-indirect-communication-styles/).
Emperor’s New Groove | Meme
This is a funny little meme regarding the point of view of neurodivergent individuals going into social situations. In the original form of this meme (the scene from The Emperor’s New Groove) the discussion involves an approaching waterfall with probable rocks at the bottom that the protagonists are about to go over. In the meme, the dreaded waterfall in the need for the neurodivergent individual to socialize and the lethal rocks are the issues that the neurodivergent individual faces when trying to fit into a neurotypical discussion. Nevertheless, both the original and the meme form end with the speaker mentally preparing themselves and taking on the difficult situation.
A Beginner’s Guide to Being Blunt | Article
This essay gives a brief overview of how to be more direct and straightforward. Written for a wide audience, it frames the suggestions as being useful in a wide variety of situations. This is key as it is important to remember that directness is not a skill only, or even always, best used between neurodivergent and neurotypical speakers. This essay makes a case for straightforwardness as a skill and discusses some ways it can be used and why. This is a good opening resource for understanding directness and can be a good tool when discussing neurodivergent conversation.
An Anthropology of Indirect Communication (ASA Monographs) | Book
This book focuses on indirect communication. An understanding of this can both help to understand more direct speech, how indirect and direct speech work, and how to make accommodations and create a shared understanding for both neurodivergent (such that each individual is capable of such abstraction as this will vary extensively) and neurotypical individuals.
Employment for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome or Non-Verbal Learning Disability: Stories and Strategies | Book
While this book focuses predominantly on the workplace, such skills can be implemented for better neurotypical-neurodivergent communication and supportive environments under a variety of different scenarios. There is a considerable amount of research that has been done in recent years about neurodivergence as a tool in the workplace and this has gone a long way to filling in a historically underrepresented field for neurodivergent research, as well as being more widely applicable. This book takes the perspective of skills that can be used by the neurodivergent individual, but it can also be used to foster a better understanding on the part of a neurotypical employer on the barriers and difficulties that might be faced by their employees. This book also discusses when and how to use metapragmatic processes in the workplace and when and how to discuss the employee’s neurodivergent needs.
Miscommunications
(with a focus on neurodivergency)
PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Asperger's Issues | Image
This outlines four major areas where miscommunication or pragmatic mismatching might occur for an individual with aspergers (a mild form of autism). These are identifying the relative importance of various topics, thinking at high speed, but not communicating everything they are thinking, a strong (even overwhelming) desire to be heard and understood, and the desire to stim (engage in repetitive acts with soothing properties for the individual) to relieve anxiety.
Where communication breaks down for people with autism | Article
People on the spectrum often have subtle problems using language or making facial expressions. Pinpointing where those difficulties originate may help ease their social communication.”
Lydia Denworth discusses some of the reasons why communication (based on neurotypical rules) can be difficult for neurodiverse individuals. They acknowledge that these challenges can be difficult to characterize because there is so much variability. Specifically, the article summarized results from a few studies on the use of prosody, facial expressions, and pronoun errors by neurodiverse speakers. In conclusions, the author suggests that differences in these areas of communication are what make the speakers seem “awkward”. The research presented in this article could be used to educate neurotypical individuals to encourage them to be more understanding.
How not to take things personally? | YouTube Video
This video deals with the topic of not taking things personally. While it does not focus directly on neurodivergence, this is an important tool in neurodivergent-neurotypical communication. The directness prominent in neurodivergent communication and frequently preferred by neurodivergent speakers can lead to offense and bruised egos. This video discusses how to avoid the ego taking over and how to avoid taking others' actions and speech personally which can support an individual in a discussion with a neurodivergent individual, for whom direct speech is not personal or intended to be offensive. This can lead to fewer angry disputes and miscommunications.
Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships: Decoding Social Mysteries Through the Unique Perspectives of Autism | Book
This book is by Temple Grandin (see two of the YouTube videos provided in this collection) and Sean Barron. It focuses on many of the unwritten social rules used by (presumably predominantly English speaking) neurotypical individuals and how to decode these “mysteries” through an autistic lense. This can both provide another point of view on day-to-day activities and discussions for a neurotypical reader and serve as a strong educational tool for a neurodivergent individual. This book deals with logic, isolation, difficulties in childhood, communication, and the need for neurodivergent individuals to learn by mimicry (even if they do not receive the support to entirely understand why they are learning what they are learning) in order to “pass” in a neurotypical society. The book description states, “Whether you are a person with autism, a caregiver in the autism community, or just someone interested in an outsider view of society, their powerful stories will enthrall and enlighten you.”
Teaching Neurodiverse Learners
PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Teaching Tips for Children and Adults with Autism | Article
This is a resource for teachers and covers interaction with both children and adults on the autism spectrum (though much of this can also be extended to other types of neurodivergence). This includes such topics as fixations, avoiding extensive series of instructions, and over-stimulation (which can have strong negative effects on communication). This also includes a wide variety of possibilities from high functioning individuals with fewer markers who might be better at passing, to non-verbal individuals, and neurodivergent (children especially) with different levels of communication skills.
Educating Different Kinds of Minds | YouTube Video
Temple Grandin also has a TEDTalk on educating different kinds of minds which deals with the education system and how to get information across to different types of individuals, as well as the recognition that responding to different kinds of thinking are important and have been for geniuses throughout history. She talks about being aware of different kinds of thinking (such as auditory thinkers, photo-realism thinkers, pattern thinkers, and verbal facts language translation). She also talks about practical experience and the importance of combining different kinds of thinkers and communication between them.
ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON THE COMMUNICATIVE BURDEN
(with a focus on neurodivergency)
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Crompton, C. J., and Fletcher-Watson S. (2019). Efficiency and Interaction during Information Transfer between Autistic and Neurotypical People. Poster presented at the International Society of Autism Research Conference, Montreal, Québec, Canada.
This poster discusses Crompton’s and Fletcher-Watson’s research on social cognition and communication between neurotypical individuals and autistic individuals. A cultural learning paradigm was adapted and extended to cover this kind of information transmission with a focus on autistic pairs, neurotypical pairs, and mixed pairs. They also researched performativity based on the communicative ability of each pair. Unsurprisingly, it was found that the mixed pairs did not perform as well as the pairs who shared the same neurotype because they faced communication issues and “cultural” differences. As such, it was found that both neurotypes performed better, and were better able to convey information when paired with another individual of the same neurotype. As an extension, from a metapragmatics education point of view, this research could help to benefit mixed groups and classrooms where pairs with the same neurotype can help each other to convey the information regarding their own needs and accommodation requirements to individuals of other neurotypes.
Heasman, B., and Gillespie A. (2019). Neurodivergent Intersubjectivity: Distinctive Features of How Autistic People Create Shared Understanding. Autism, vol. 23, no. 4, pp. 910–921, doi:10.1177/1362361318785172.
Brett Heasman and Alex Gillespie analyzed the transcripts of video-recorded sessions of 30 adults with autism to identify features of neurodivergent intersubjectivity. The authors mapped the conversations and found “(1) rapid shifting between consistent and fragmented turns and (2) divergence between intersubjective dimensions”. In further analysis, the authors identified that assumptions of common ground and a low demand for coordination were pervasive in the conversations. A common example of a generous assumption of common ground from this study was the use of quotes and imitations of media references. When the assumption of common ground was successful, the participants produced symmetric coordination. In the event that the assumption was not successful, the interaction appeared uncoordinated and egocentric. The low demand for coordination indicated that the participants were able to move on from disconnected interactions.
Lee, Teresa. (2018). Bridging Two Worlds: Co-designing social spaces for autism from a neurodiversity perspective by exporting affordances of virtual worlds to physical spaces. Thesis, OCAD University.
This article discusses some of the design affordances that allow neurodivergent people to interact in the virtual space compared to the physical world. The researchers also co-designed a space in the physical world that implemented some of the affordances identified and applied them in a virtual reality space. The four main affordances identified were “1) a safe space 2) alternate ways to create and understand meaning 3) object-centered sociality, and 4) moderation. The participants in this study were three neurodivergent adults recruited by the researcher. These participants expressed that they had different experiences and cognitive processing compared to neurotypical individuals. In terms of communication, for these individuals, casual conversations were usually not their preferred way of interaction with others, which created a disconnect between them and the physical world. The virtual reality designed at the conclusion of this project included an opportunity to explore while remaining invisible, and a user information box that provided information about the spaces and other people. There were also options that allowed for stimulation control and easy access to a moderator that could help when the user needs advice.
It should be noted that affordances created for the virtual reality simulation may not be possible to implement in the physical world. However, Teresa Lee’s research is helpful in understanding some of the challenges that neurodiverse individuals face when interacting in the physical world and that some of these difficulties can be alleviated through society design. For instance, neurotypical individuals can create a safe space for neurodiverse individuals where they can take their time and be themselves.
Loftis, Sonia Freeman. (2014). The Superman on the Spectrum: Shaw's Autistic Characters and the Neurodiversity Movement. Shaw, vol. 34, no. 1, pp. 59–74. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/shaw.34.1.0059.
This essay discusses how the autism spectrum is often portrayed in media and the pervasive stereotypes that this can encourage. Loftis (2014) states, “Medical discourse constructs a definition of autism using the language of ‘deficit’ and ‘loss’ (‘a deficit in social skills’), while the media construct autism in terms of fantastic excess (the savant and his compensation cure).” Using such blanket assumptions to cover all neurodivergent individuals can be damaging to cross-neurotype communication and understanding. It is important to not rely on stereotypes when learning to communicate with neurodivergent individuals. Neurodivergence neither implies a necessary deficit, nor an inherent genius savant. Loftis helps to explain why such truths are important to remember and understand.
Milton, Damian. (2012). On the ontological status of autism: the ‘double empathy problem. Disability & Society, 27 (6), pp. 883-887. ISSN 0968-7599. (doi:10.1080/09687599.2012.710008)
Damian discusses the nature of interactions between different neurotypes. He focuses on the “double empathy problem” which deals with the fact that, when two people with different backgrounds, mentalities, and/or experiences interact with each other, they might have difficulty empathizing with each other. As such, neurodivergent individuals do not necessarily lack empathy, but they and neurotypical individuals may have difficulty empathizing with each other and, as a result, it can be more difficult to make inferences about each individual's meanings, priorities, intentions, etc. It makes it difficult for each to know what the other needs and looks for in a conversation. While some individuals have difficulty making such inferences, or understanding or predicting another’s behavior (sometimes called “mentalizing,” see: Bergen & Trott, 2020 for more on this), this “double empathy problem” can further widen the gap. As such, it is important to understand this in order to avoid some of the pitfalls mentioned here when attempting co-construction.
Ratnakaran, Badr. (2017). Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and Future of Neurodiversity (Book Review). Kerala Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 30 (2), pp. 120 - 123. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/453b/976e513ab1c82532615fe9995a1531842ba2.pdf
This is a review by Badr Ratnakara of the book “Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and Future Neurodiversity” by Steve Silberman. Silberman explores themes related to autism by studying the evolution of the diagnosis throughout history. In his conclusion, Silberman argues asks the audience to reframe disorders like ASD, learning disorders, and ADHD as “diverse presentations of normal human behavior” or “neurotribes." Essentially, Silberman is arguing for the foundations of the neurodiversity movement: cognitive differences are not deficits and society can and should implement measures that integrate neurodiverse individuals instead of trying to fix them. Ratnakara describes Silberman’s book as an accessible read for a general audience or for trainees in mental health fields. However, his message is based on the American culture of the middle to upper class, limiting its relevance to other cultures.
This resource is not an academic research paper, but it reiterated the idea that neurodiversity is something that needs to be embraced instead of fixed. The reviewer’s comment on the cultural frame of Silberman’s book is also important to keep in mind when thinking about neurodivergent experiences. The experiences presented in this collection do not represent the experiences of neurodivergent individuals in all cultures. Finally, it provides information about outside sources that may be helpful for those interested in neurodiversity to explore.
White, B., and Boue, S. (2015). Autism, Art and the World Behind the World: Adventures in Neurodiverse Communication. Disability Studies Quarterly, vol. 35, no. 1.
“Autism, Art and the World Behind the World” is an exploratory paper by Brent White and Sonie Boue that challenges the reader and argues for empathy and compassion for neurodiversity. It is an unconventional approach to scholarship because it is an edited digital conversation between the authors. The authors do not directly explain the need for empathy in the body of the article. Instead, they hope to explore the difference through their discussion of experience and interface. The authors also ask the reader to consider equating the misunderstandings they have to the autistic experience in a neurotypical world. Though not related to metapragmatics or direct speech, this article encourages empathy and respect from the neurotypical audience.
ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON MISCOMMUNICATIONS
(with a focus on neurodivergency)
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Bergen, B. and Trott S. (2020). When Do Comprehenders Mentalize for Pragmatic Inference? Discourse Processes, vol. 57:10, pp. 900-920, DOI: 10.1080/0163853X.2020.1822709
This study focuses on the mechanics with which inferences are made. This is valuable in a number of ways as it relates to cross-neurotype conversation and communication. For the purpose of this study “Mentalizing correlates with task performance when comprehenders are asked to sample and report mental state information (Experiment 1b) or when given mental state information explicitly and asked to make an inference (Experiment 2, Explicit),” (Bergen & Trott, 2020).
Mentalizing is often difficult for neurodivergent individuals and understanding how it works, and the difficulties that neurodivergent individuals might be having, can help a neurotypical individual to understand what they might be miscommunicating in a conversation. This kind of understanding of their own strategies can make a neurotypical individual more aware of the choices that they are making and give them an ability to co-construct interactions to avoid miscommunication. Furthermore, this article can also help neurodivergent individuals to understand, if not necessarily the actual inferences that they might be missing, what they are misunderstanding and that there may be something that a neurotypical individual is trying to tell them that they are not realizing. Knowing where there can be miscommunications is very important for avoiding them in conversation.
Shlomo B., Rajwan O., and Tal S. (2021). Conversational Categories and Metapragmatic Awareness in Typically Developing Children. Journal of Pragmatics, vol. 172, pp. 46–62.
This article focuses on metapragmatic awareness in children by asking them questions about video-recorded conversations (the assessed metapragmatic test). The videos were split into two categories: turn-taking mechanisms and dialogue cooperation skills. Each participant was asked if there was something wrong with the conversation; if they could identify what was wrong; why it was wrong; and what could have been done instead. The experiment participants in this study were all typically developing children aged 4 -10 and their performance on the tasks was compared with an adult control group. The researchers found that as age increased, the participant’s scores of the assessed metapragmatic test increased. This finding aligns with similar studies done with English-speaking participants. This study also found that the scores for the turn-taking skills category were higher than the dialogue cooperation skills category. This indicates that awareness of turn-taking skills developed earlier, possibly because of their simplicity.
Even though this article did not deal with metapragmatics in use, directness, or neurodivergence, it gives some background on what kinds of metalinguistic rules children may already be aware of. It also provides an introduction to when and how long it may take to develop metapragmatic awareness. One takeaway from this study is that it seems that the children in this study had the most trouble identifying why certain interactions were inappropriate, despite identifying that there was something wrong with the conversation.
Engelhardt, Paul, et al. (2017). Speaker-Versus Listener-Oriented Disfluency: A Re-Examination of Arguments and Assumptions from Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 47, no. 9, pp. 2885–2898.
This study investigates disfluencies in high functioning forms of autism spectrum disorders (HFA) by analyzing disfluencies produced by HFA speakers and neurotypical speakers. The researchers looked at the four main types of disfluency: filled pauses, unfilled pauses, repetitions, and repairs. They found that HFA individuals produced more repairs and unfilled pauses than the typically-developing group. The researchers believe that the increased rate of unfilled pauses was due to slower memory retrieval in individuals. They also conclude repair disfluencies are speaker-oriented (due to speaker-oriented factors).
This article provides some information about ASD and disfluent speech. While most of the resources are focused on directness and misinterpretations, it is important to understand that neurodivergence can affect verbal skills in many ways.
Martin, Gary E, et al. (2020). Longitudinal Analysis of Communication Repair Skills across Three Neurodevelopmental Disabilities. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, vol. 55, no. 1, pp. 26–42.
Gary et al. studied the communication repair skills of individuals with fragile X syndrome with and without autism spectrum disorder, idiopathic autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, and typically developing children over time. Their findings suggest communication repair skills may not be as limited by language and cognition as previously thought. They also found significant sex differences in the development of communication repair skills. The males that participated in this experiment demonstrated a decrease in inappropriate and suprasegmental strategies with age. On the other hand, the females in this experiment with FXS-ASD, FXS-O, and DS became more non-responsive with age. These sex differences seemed to be significant especially in children with FXS-ASD. There were also observations that indicate that individuals with different diagnoses had different challenges. For example, the males with FXS-ASD did not increase their use of meta-commentary, while the other groups did.
This article demonstrates that some pragmatic skills can be improved over time, with age. The authors noted that the improvement of some of the older children could have been a result of intervention, but these results still show that communication repair is malleable. These results also show that it is important to keep in mind that neurodiverse individuals face different challenges and that the effectiveness of interventions depends on the individuals. With this in mind, some of the interventions and strategies presented in our project may not be applicable to all neurodiverse individuals.
ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON TEACHING NEURODIVERSE LEARNERS
Resources in this section curated by: Kira Seretan and Chloe Tacata
Ashby, C. and Woodfield, C. (2019). Honouring, Constructing and Supporting Neurodivergent Communicators in Inclusive Classrooms. Promoting Social Inclusion (International Perspectives on Inclusive Education, Vol. 13), Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 151-167.
This article focuses on interaction in classrooms. This can also be transferred out of the classroom in many ways as it handles different neurotypical and neurodivergent points of view and community interaction and involvement. Much of the focus of this text is on non-verbal neurodivergent individuals, but these ways in which inclusion and communication with said individual can be implemented are still highly applicable to an understanding of accommodation in communication and an understanding of various focuses and perspectives. This study is geared towards teachers and other education professionals with the intent to help aid in better inclusivity and communication in Special Education and mixed classrooms.
Lockton, Elaine et al. (2016). Do children with social communication disorder have explicit knowledge of pragmatic rules they break? A comparison of conversational pragmatic ability and metapragmatic awareness. International journal of language & communication disorders vol. 51, 5: 508-17. doi:10.1111/1460-6984.12227
The researchers of this article looked at children with social communication disorders to test their metapragmatic awareness. The researchers analyzed the results from two different tasks: the Targeted Observation of Pragmatics in Children’s Conversation and the Assessment of Metapragmatics (AMP). The former task was aimed at conversational pragmatics and the latter at metapragmatic knowledge. The results of this study indicate that some children had metapragmatic awareness, but it did not significantly impact their pragmatic behavior. This indicates that children with SCD could benefit from instruction aimed at understanding and improving motivation for following pragmatic rules.
Martin, Nicola. (2020). Practical Scholarship: Optimising beneficial research collaborations between autistic scholars, professional services staff, and ‘typical academics’ in UK universities. Neurodiversity Studies: A New Critical Paradigm, edited by Hanna Bertilsdotter Rosqvist, Nick Chown, Anna Stenning, Taylor & Francis.
In this essay, Martin discusses the value of collaboration between neurodiverse and neurotypical individuals in scholarship and research. This involves not only inclusivity in upper education, but also the ability to communicate between neuro-types. Martin lauds the research that such collaborations can create and makes a case of the increase of such collaborative research. Martin comes at this issue from a neurodiverse perspective. As such, she discusses not only the value of these collaborations but what is required in order to make them happen and to make them as successful as possible. She says this is particularly the case with research on neurodiversity for which, she states, “An insider perspective is key to this area of enquiry,” (Martin, 2020). To this end, this essay not only discusses communication around academic scholarship but also the metapragmatics of neurodiverse individuals participating in such scholarship.
Verschueren, Jef. (2000). Notes on the Role of Metapragmatic Awareness in Language Use. Pragmatics : Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 439–456.
This article summarizes and explains some of the fundamental concepts of metalanguage, metapragmatics, and metapragmatic awareness. Verschueren goes through some of the definitions of metapragmatics and metalanguage that are discussed in the field. When discussing the social implications of metapragmatic awareness, Verschueren argues that metapragmatic awareness enables judgments based on social norms and language ideology. For the individual, metapragmatic functioning can be used in the identity construction of the speaker. In the conclusion, Verschueren argues that metapragmatic awareness is crucial to pragmatic functioning and message interpretation. This article explores more of the theoretical side of metalanguage and metapragmatics, it provides researchers with an overview of metapragmatic awareness and some of the issues that come about when planning to study it.
For this project, this article is not a recommended read for the community, it is better suited for a reader in the academic field. Perhaps the most relevant takeaway is that pragmatics and metapragmatic awareness are important features in identity construction and interpreting meaning because of social norms and constructed language ideologies. This means that pragmatics and the ways that speakers use language carry meaning at a level that may not be salient. In order to deconstruct negative judgments about pragmatic features like directness, it is then important to understand and reevaluate the negative social meaning that it carries.
