Missing Responses in Neurodiverse Interaction: Case Study of an Inclusive Workshop

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Objectives. </strong>The research studies challenges of neurodiverse interaction in an inclusive workplace involving adult employees with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Missing a response to a question or request is a communication disruption and can present someone&rsquo;s contribution as irrelevant or be interpreted as ignoring. Thus, it is crucial to investigate the reasons behind such disruptions and what both participants with ASD and neurotypical ones do in such cases.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Methods.&nbsp;</strong>The main method is conversation analysis of video recordings made in an inclusive workshop for people with mental disabilities. This was backed up with participant observation in the role of a volunteer. The data collection comprises 12 cases, in which one of the participants (with ASD or without ASD) did not get a reply to their question or directive, immediately or at all; 4 of these cases are analysed in the present article.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Results.&nbsp;</strong>In the 3 episodes, the same employee with ASD, having not received a reply to his question or request, also from a neurotypical instructor, repeats his phrase completely or almost verbatim; in addition, he implements the following strategies to draw attention: adds a vocative and a politeness marker, redirects the request to a specific person (after the instructor&rsquo;s advice). In the 4th episode, an employee with ASD does not respond immediately to the instructor&rsquo;s directives, continues the conversation about an abstract topic without promptly switching to work.</p> <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Conclusions.&nbsp;</strong>Analysis of the data collection enables to draw conclusions about differences in the actions of neurotypical and neurodiverse participants when they do not get a response to their question or directive. The former demonstrate more elaborate strategies, modifying the question or directive (including grammatical structure), drawing attention in different ways, using various bodily actions and argumentation; neurodiverse people tend to repeat the wording, not modifying the grammatical structure of the main clause, or wait. The following reasons for missing a response have been identified: division into pairs in a multiparty interaction (employees with a diagnosed condition and non-diagnosed instructors who may not pay attention to the question of the person in the other pair); difference in prioritizing the two courses of actions &mdash; work and chat about an abstract topic &mdash; and in the ways interlocutors switch between them; neurodivergent people are involved in interactional patterns and language games which are not supported by neurotypical colleagues. Awareness about possible interactional challenges and the ways they can be overcome helps to secure inclusivity in the workplace.</p>