Subjective position sliding in utterances perceived as echolalic in a child with Language Disorder: a case study.
Juliana Bonatto, Natália Faloni Coelho, Lourenço Chacon
PMID 38126590WHAT IT FOUND
In a child with language disorder, repetitive 'do you want...' utterances were not empty echoes.
They revealed a shifting subject position. When the therapist failed to hear the child's desire, the utterance changed. Finally, the child broke the pattern to speak in the first person.
Key findings
01The child's repetitive utterances followed a strict 'does X want Y' structure where only the object varied, while the verb 'want' and interrogative tone remained constant.
02The therapist's failure to interpret these utterances as expressions of the child's desire coincided with the repetition and lexical variation of the structure.
03The pattern eventually broke when the child shifted from the second-person interrogative to a first-person declarative statement, marking a change in subject position.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is a single case report of one child with a specific diagnosis (language disorder and early psychosis). The findings are based on the interpretation of a single 40-minute session. The theoretical framework is highly specific to a French linguistic-discursive approach, which may not align with standard pragmatic or behavioral therapy models. There is no control group or comparison to other children with similar profiles.
Declared interests
Funded by CNPq and CAPES (Brazilian research agencies). No commercial conflicts declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume this pattern applies to all children with echolalia or language disorders. This is a single case interpreted through a specific theoretical lens. The 'sliding subject position' is an interpretive framework, not a measured outcome. Do not change standard practice based on this report alone.