Embodied emotional communication in learning activities involving children with intellectual disabilities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v4i2.185Keywords:
emotions, emotional communication, children with intellectual disabilities, social interactionAbstract
This article investigates and discusses the role of emotional communication in learning activities between children with intellectual disabilities and the pedagogical staff. Through detailed analyses combining Communication Studies with Conversation Analyses (CA) it is shown how embodied emotional actions play a vital role when playing games in learning activities. In some of the examples the embodied actions are treated as conflicting with the rule following behaviour inherent in playing games, or even treated as a nuisance that is corrected. Still, another example shows how embodied emotional actions can be used as an important vehicle in achieving active learning and practicing verbal skills. The article proposes an inter-disciplinary approach to emotions as both embodied and social phenomena that need to be taken seriously especially in learning activities involving children with intellectual disabilities since they only rarely communicate their emotions verbally.
References
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Atkinson, J. M. and Heritage, J. C. (eds) (1984). Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barkow, J. H., Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J. (1995). Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnes, R. and Moss, D. (2007). Communicating a feeling: The social organization of ‘private thoughts’. Discourse Studies 9 (2): 123–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445607075339
Bartsch, A. and Hübner, S. (2005). Towards a theory of emotional communication. Comparative Literature and Culture, 7.4. http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1278
Bowers, J. W., Metts, S. M. and Duncanson, W. T. (1985). Emotion and interpersonal communication. In M. L. Knapp and G. R. Miller (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Communication, 500–550. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Buss, D. (2011). Evolutionary Psychology. The New Science of Mind. Fourth Edition. London: Pearson Education.
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ Error. Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Putnam Books.
Donsback, W. (2006). The identity of communication research. Journal of Communication, 54 (4): 589–615.
Ekman, P. (ed.) (2006). Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review. Los Altos, CA: Malor Books.
Ekman, P. (2007). Emotions Revealed, Second Edition: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. New York: Owl Books.
Gergen, K. (1994). Realities and Relationships. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gergen, K. (2009). An Invitation to Social Construction. Second Edition. London: Sage Publications.
Goodwin, M. H. (2007). Participation and embodied action in preadolescent girls’ assessment activity. Research on Language and Social Interaction 40 (4): 353–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08351810701471344
Harré, R. (ed.) (1986). The Social Construction of Emotions. Oxford: Basic Blackwell.
Harris, J. C. (2006). Intellectual Disability: Understanding Its Development, Causes, Classification, Evaluation, and Treatment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heritage, J. and Clayman, S. (2010). Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hougaard, G. R. and Hougaard, A. (2009). Fused bodies: Sense-making as a phenomenon of interacting, knowledgeable, social bodies. In H. Pishwa (ed.) Language and Social Cognition: Expression of the Social Mind, 47–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hutchby, I. and Wooffit, R. (2008). Conversation Analysis. Second Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jefferson, G. (2004). A sketch of some orderly aspects of overlap in natural conversation (1975). In G. H. Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, 43–59. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knapp, M. L. and Daly, J. A. (eds) (2011). The SAGE Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Los Angeles, CA and London: SAGE.
LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Mäkitalo, Å. (2003). Accounting practices as situated knowing: dilemmas and dynamics in institutional categorization. Discourse Studies 5 (4): 495–516.
Maiese, M. (2011). Embodiment, Emotion, and Cognition. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Metts, S. and Planalp, S. (2003). Emotional communication. In M. L. Knapp and J. A. Daly (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Communication: 339–374. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
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Panksepp, J. (2004). Affective Neuroscience. The Foundation of Human and Animal Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Planalp, S. (1999). Communicating Emotion: Social, Moral and Cultural Processes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pudlinski, C. (2005). Doing empathy and sympathy: Caring responses to troubles telling on a peer support line. Discourse Studies, 7 (3): 267–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1461445605052177
Rasmussen, G. (2010). ‘Going mental’: The risks of assessment activities (in teenage talk). Discourse Studies, 12 (6): 739–761. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445610381863
Ruusuvuori, J. (2005). ‘Empathy’ and ‘sympathy’ in action. Social Psychology Quarterly 68: 204–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019027250506800302
Ruusuvouri, J. (2007). Managing affect. Integration of empathy and problem solving in health care encounters. Discourse Studies, 9 (5): 597–622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146 1445607081269
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. and Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50 (4): 696–735. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2307/412243
Sandlund, E. (2004). Feeling by Doing: The Social Organization of Everyday Emotions in Academic Talk-in-Interaction. Doctoral dissertation, Karlstad University: Department of English.
Steensig, J. (in press). Conversation analysis and affiliation and alignment. In K. Mortensen and J. Wagner (eds) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: Conversation Analysis. Cambridge,: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stivers, T., Mondada, L. and Steensig, J. (2011). Knowledge, morality and affiliation in social interaction. In T. Stivers, L. Mondada and J. Steensig The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, 3-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921674.002
Streek, J., Goodwin, C. and LeBaron, C. (eds) (2011). Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Voutilainen, L. (2010). Emotional Experience in Psychotherapeutic Interaction. Conversation Analytic Study on Cognitive Psychotherapy. Academic Dissertation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki.
Wiben Jensen, T. (2012). Evaluating by feeling. The rhetorical design of emotions in the practice of mirroring. In G. Rasmussen, C. E. Brouwer and D. Day Evaluating Cognitive Competences in Interaction, 145–168. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Wilkinson, S. and Kitzinger, C. (2006). Surprise as an interactional achievement: reaction tokens in conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly 69(2): 150–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019027250606900203
Atkinson, J. M. and Heritage, J. C. (eds) (1984). Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barkow, J. H., Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J. (1995). Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnes, R. and Moss, D. (2007). Communicating a feeling: The social organization of ‘private thoughts’. Discourse Studies 9 (2): 123–148. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445607075339
Bartsch, A. and Hübner, S. (2005). Towards a theory of emotional communication. Comparative Literature and Culture, 7.4. http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1278
Bowers, J. W., Metts, S. M. and Duncanson, W. T. (1985). Emotion and interpersonal communication. In M. L. Knapp and G. R. Miller (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Communication, 500–550. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
Buss, D. (2011). Evolutionary Psychology. The New Science of Mind. Fourth Edition. London: Pearson Education.
Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ Error. Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. New York: Putnam Books.
Donsback, W. (2006). The identity of communication research. Journal of Communication, 54 (4): 589–615.
Ekman, P. (ed.) (2006). Darwin and Facial Expression: A Century of Research in Review. Los Altos, CA: Malor Books.
Ekman, P. (2007). Emotions Revealed, Second Edition: Recognizing Faces and Feelings to Improve Communication and Emotional Life. New York: Owl Books.
Gergen, K. (1994). Realities and Relationships. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gergen, K. (2009). An Invitation to Social Construction. Second Edition. London: Sage Publications.
Goodwin, M. H. (2007). Participation and embodied action in preadolescent girls’ assessment activity. Research on Language and Social Interaction 40 (4): 353–375. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08351810701471344
Harré, R. (ed.) (1986). The Social Construction of Emotions. Oxford: Basic Blackwell.
Harris, J. C. (2006). Intellectual Disability: Understanding Its Development, Causes, Classification, Evaluation, and Treatment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heritage, J. and Clayman, S. (2010). Talk in Action: Interactions, Identities, and Institutions. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hougaard, G. R. and Hougaard, A. (2009). Fused bodies: Sense-making as a phenomenon of interacting, knowledgeable, social bodies. In H. Pishwa (ed.) Language and Social Cognition: Expression of the Social Mind, 47–74. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Hutchby, I. and Wooffit, R. (2008). Conversation Analysis. Second Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Jefferson, G. (2004). A sketch of some orderly aspects of overlap in natural conversation (1975). In G. H. Lerner (ed.) Conversation Analysis: Studies from the First Generation, 43–59. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Kendon, A. (2004). Gesture: Visible Action as Utterance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Knapp, M. L. and Daly, J. A. (eds) (2011). The SAGE Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Los Angeles, CA and London: SAGE.
LeDoux, J. (1996). The Emotional Brain. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Mäkitalo, Å. (2003). Accounting practices as situated knowing: dilemmas and dynamics in institutional categorization. Discourse Studies 5 (4): 495–516.
Maiese, M. (2011). Embodiment, Emotion, and Cognition. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Metts, S. and Planalp, S. (2003). Emotional communication. In M. L. Knapp and J. A. Daly (eds) Handbook of Interpersonal Communication: 339–374. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Metts, S. and Planalp, S. (2011). Emotion experience and expression: Current trends and future directions in interpersonal relationship research. In M. L. Knapp and J. A. Daly (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. Fourth Edition, 283-317. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Panksepp, J. (2004). Affective Neuroscience. The Foundation of Human and Animal Emotions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Parrot, W. G. (2001). Emotions in Social Psychology. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.
Planalp, S. (1998). Communicating emotion in everyday life: Cues, channels, and processes. In P. A. Andersen and L. K. Guerrero (eds) Handbook of Communication and Emotion. Research, Theory, Applications, and Contexts, 30–48. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Planalp, S. (1999). Communicating Emotion: Social, Moral and Cultural Processes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pudlinski, C. (2005). Doing empathy and sympathy: Caring responses to troubles telling on a peer support line. Discourse Studies, 7 (3): 267–288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/ 1461445605052177
Rasmussen, G. (2010). ‘Going mental’: The risks of assessment activities (in teenage talk). Discourse Studies, 12 (6): 739–761. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1461445610381863
Ruusuvuori, J. (2005). ‘Empathy’ and ‘sympathy’ in action. Social Psychology Quarterly 68: 204–222. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019027250506800302
Ruusuvouri, J. (2007). Managing affect. Integration of empathy and problem solving in health care encounters. Discourse Studies, 9 (5): 597–622. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/146 1445607081269
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A. and Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50 (4): 696–735. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.2307/412243
Sandlund, E. (2004). Feeling by Doing: The Social Organization of Everyday Emotions in Academic Talk-in-Interaction. Doctoral dissertation, Karlstad University: Department of English.
Steensig, J. (in press). Conversation analysis and affiliation and alignment. In K. Mortensen and J. Wagner (eds) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics: Conversation Analysis. Cambridge,: Wiley-Blackwell.
Stivers, T., Mondada, L. and Steensig, J. (2011). Knowledge, morality and affiliation in social interaction. In T. Stivers, L. Mondada and J. Steensig The Morality of Knowledge in Conversation, 3-24. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921674.002
Streek, J., Goodwin, C. and LeBaron, C. (eds) (2011). Embodied Interaction: Language and Body in the Material World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Voutilainen, L. (2010). Emotional Experience in Psychotherapeutic Interaction. Conversation Analytic Study on Cognitive Psychotherapy. Academic Dissertation: Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki.
Wiben Jensen, T. (2012). Evaluating by feeling. The rhetorical design of emotions in the practice of mirroring. In G. Rasmussen, C. E. Brouwer and D. Day Evaluating Cognitive Competences in Interaction, 145–168. Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
Wilkinson, S. and Kitzinger, C. (2006). Surprise as an interactional achievement: reaction tokens in conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly 69(2): 150–182. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019027250606900203
Published
2013-09-17
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Jensen, T. (2013). Embodied emotional communication in learning activities involving children with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 4(2), 185-210. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v4i2.185
