Pragmatics and Society 1/2011 [antikvár]

Interaction in pathological contexts Methodology and case studies of Alzheimer patients and multihandicapped persons Isabelle Guaítella Université de Provence In this paper we investigate the behavior patterns (both vocal and gestural) of Alzheimer patients and multihandicapped persons communicating with peers and therapists in an interaction situation. Communicative items were analyzed automatically and sorted into patterns. The results showed that despite their reported 'linguistic' disabilities, the patients not only played their role in the interaction, but were alsó able to lead the conversation and take initiatives. In spite of their vulnerability, both types of patients, particularly those with Alzheimers disease, exhibited the ability to integrate new information and to get involved in the dialogue. Keywords: multimodality, Alzheimer, multihandicapped, nonverbal, gesturalvocal methodology, therapy by interaction, interaction sclerosis, dynamic data analysis 1. Introduction In this paper, we describe a methodology for analyzing interactions involving patients with verbal expression deficiencies, whether memory problems (as in Alzheimer patients) or a totál lack of verbal discourse (as in the multihandicapped patients studied here). Here, we will synthesize the different observations made of Alzheimer patients and multihandicapped adults with no verbal proficiency, in order to present a methodology for observing interactive occurrences in pathological contexts, and to investigate the interaction behavior of these verbally impaired individuals. We alsó look into whether taking both vocal and gestural expression into consideration can provide an answer to the following question: Are persons with verbal language disabilities capable of taking part in the various processes of interaction, including holding their place or even taking initiatives in a conversation?