How and why children instigate talk in pediatric allergy consultations

A conversation analytic account

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4595293
AutoresLaura Jenkins (0000-0002-5594-4477, Loughborough University, autor correspondente), A Hepburn (0000-0001-6564-6310, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey), Christiana Macdougall (0000-0002-1452-9322, University of Warwick), Colin Macdougall (0000-0002-1270-6823)
Ano2020
Volume266
Páginas113291
Data de publicação2020-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoSocial Science & Medicine (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0277-9536 • E-ISSN: 1873-5347
EditoraElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113291
PMID32920197
OpenAlexW3082453374
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas43

Involving children in their healthcare encounter is a national and international priority. While existing research has examined the ways in which children are recruited to participate in the consultation, no work has examined whether and how children instigate talk, and the extent to which their contributions are successful. This paper presents a conversation analysis of a selection of 10 out of 30 video recordings in which children aged 4-10 years instigate talk during consultations they attend with their parents/carers at a UK pediatric clinic. The analysis reveals for the first time that children do successfully instigate talk without being asked or selected in 22 episodes during their consultation with the doctor. Children most frequently address their parent/carer (16/22). They capitalize on specific contexts within the consultation to instigate talk, for example: history-taking questions about what they ate or how they reacted (10/22); or discussions surrounding the child's feelings or sensations following the skin-prick testing (7/22) - aspects of experience to which they have access. Children's non-solicited talk necessarily occurs when they are not currently active participators and children engage in extra interactional work including various verbal strategies (summons and prosodic variations) and non-verbal resources (tapping and gaze) to break into the interaction. The benefits of their contributions include the opportunity to affirm the child's role as a legitimate contributor, and the potential for additional medically-relevant information to arise which could enrich the clinical process. Our analysis shows that the previously overlooked phenomenon of children instigating talk, although not common, can play a crucial role in the consultation. We suggest that strategies to increase such involvement have the potential to augment the healthcare process. Our findings offer a critical baseline for the introduction of new consultations models, such as digital appointments, which may exclude some children completely

Conversation · Conversation analysis · Family medicine · Feeling · Gaze · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social and Educational Sciences · Social Psychology · Stuttering Research and Treatment