Reconciling communication repertoires: navigating interactions involving persons with severe/profound intellectual disability, a classic grounded theory study.
Follow the five-stage Reconciling Communication Repertoires model to keep talks with severe-ID clients on track.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched real talks between staff and clients with severe or profound ID.
They built a brand-new five-step road map called Reconciling Communication Repertoires.
The steps are: motivation, connection, engagement, understanding, and fixing confusion.
What they found
No scores or stats—just a clear story of how good talks unfold.
Staff and clients move through the same five stages when they click.
The model shows where to step in when a talk stalls.
How this fits with other research
Hostyn et al. (2010) made the S-DMM scale to rate staff-client chats.
That scale gives numbers; A-Sutton et al. (2022) gives the play-by-play.
Use both: S-DMM to score, Reconciling model to guide your next move.
Emerson et al. (2023) list 50-plus coding tools for parent talk in autism.
Their list helps you pick a coder; the 2022 model helps you act once you see the code.
Why it matters
You now have a simple checklist for every talk with non-speaking clients.
Start with motivation: show the client why the talk is worth it.
End with confusion repair: re-cue, re-model, and try again.
Tape one lunch chat this week and map it to the five stages.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: A rights-based agenda, informed by the UNCRPD, that advocates person-centredness, inclusion, empowerment and self-determination is shaping service provision to people with intellectual disability (ID). Listening to their perspectives is fundamental to meeting these goals. However, communication with people with severe/profound ID is challenging and difficult. Therefore, this study aims to generate a theory that explains how people communicate with and understand each other in these interactions. METHODS: Classic grounded theory (CGT) methodology was used as it recognises that knowledge can be captured rather than interpreted. According to CGT, capturing rather than interpreting experiences strengthens findings, particularly in relation to participants with severe/profound ID. Concurrent theoretical sampling, data collection and analysis were undertaken. Twenty-two individuals participated in the study: 3 people with severe/profound ID and 19 people with whom they interact. Data were collected over a 9-month period and involved video recordings, field notes, individual and group interviews. Data were analysed using CGT methods of coding, constant comparison and memoing. RESULTS: The Theory of Reconciling Communication Repertoires was generated. Nurturing a sense of belonging emerged as the main concern and core category that is resolved by reconciling communication repertoires. A communication repertoire refers to the cache of communication skills a person has available to them. To reconcile repertoires is to harmonise or make them compatible with each other in order to communicate. Interactions are navigated through five stages: motivation to interact, connection establishment, reciprocally engaging, navigating understanding and confusion resolution. CONCLUSIONS: The Theory of Reconciling Communication Repertoires explains how interactions involving people with severe/profound ID are navigated. While this is a substantive rather than formal theory, it has the potential to inform practice, policy, management, education and research as it outlines how communication with people with severe/profound ID can take place to design, inform and plan person-centred care.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2022 · doi:10.1111/jir.12921