Communication disorders, enchrony, and other-participation in repair

Communication disorders pose various challenges for valid and reliable measurement. Previously, we sketched how the prevailing concepts and measurement practices employed in research and speech pathology practice for communication disorders have framed the real-time accomplishment of co-present communication, and contrasted them with its observable properties. We also proposed that distinctive aspects of communication disorders could be divided into three conceptual/causal frames: microgenetic, synchronic, and enchronic. The enchronic frame aligns with the real-time accomplishment of communication, capturing the ways that cognitive processing and language systems are actually put to use for communication. In this special issue, the contributors explore a core aspect of communication – repair organization – in interactions involving people with communication disorders. Each contribution provides detailed insight into population-specific ways that other-participation in repair (and associated activities) shapes communication in daily life.