How do adults communicate about and with children in healthcare settings? Do doctors and nurses converse mostly with parents during medical encounters, thereby relegating the child to the role of bystander? Or do they develop verbal and non-verbal strategies to help calm anxious children and to give them a central voice? And how do parents help shape the discursive dynamics of this triad?

We will explore these questions by bringing together healthcare practitioners, parents, and linguists, and by unpicking concrete examples of healthcare conversations involving children. The aim of the workshop is to learn from each other’s experiences and perspectives. We are convinced that our ability to respond effectively to the challenges specific to pediatric communication can be improved substantially by linguistic insights into general conversational processes. Conversely, we also want to establish interaction involving children in healthcare contexts as a domain of linguistic investigation.

The presentations and discussion will be in French and in English.