Inflexibility as an interactional phenomenon: Using conversation analysis to re-examine a symptom of autism

Abstract

Many accounts of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) imply that the condition's behavioural ‘symptoms’ are direct reflexes of underlying deficits. In doing so, however, they invariably overlook the social contexts in which symptomatic behaviours occur and are identified as pathological. This study addresses this issue, using conversation analysis (CA) to examine the emergence of inflexibility, a behavioural trait symptomatic of ASD, during play involving an adult and diagnosed child. We argue that ‘inflexibility’ is the product of the child's strategic attempts to retain control over the unfolding interaction, within a context where such attempts breach normative expectations about adult–child play. Furthermore, it demonstrates that the adult does not resist these attempts, on occasion even explicitly providing opportunity for subsequent inflexibility. This challenges the assumption that ASD's behavioural profile solely represents the endpoint of underlying deficit, and demonstrates how ‘non-impaired’ speakers can be implicated in the manifestation of symptomatic behaviours.

Keywords:

• autism spectrum disorder
• ASD
• inflexibility
• play
• social interaction
• conversation analysis

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers for their thoughtful and constructive comments on this paper.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.