ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the emergent areas in the interactional autism research undertaken so far. It considers how this research can begin to shed new light on communication in autism. It also considers the burgeoning field of autism studies in the interactional tradition that can help us rethink psychological concepts, such as echolalia, inflexibility and stereotypical movements, and joint attention, through a selection of studies. The chapter identifies key areas in the interactional literature on autism and describes emerging possibilities, such as rethinking behaviours characterised as 'symptomatic' of autism as interactionally occasioned. It discusses echolalia, a form of repeated talk, often associated with autism. The chapter examines how the multimodal interaction perspective has direct relevance to addressing the questions about autistic bodies and communication by attending to the timing of bodily conduct in social interactions. Many of the interactional studies have used video recordings, making occasional references to participants' bodily conduct.
