How clerks understand the requests of people living with aphasia in service encounters

ABSTRACT

Aphasia often restricts participation. People living with aphasia (PLWA) engage in fewer activities, which leads to fewer interactions than before aphasia. Analyses of interactions with non-familiar people in activities of daily life could provide knowledge about how to integrate these situations in rehabilitation and facilitate ongoing PLWA participation post-rehabilitation. This qualitative study is the first to examine how PLWA make their requests understood in service encounters despite aphasia. Six people living with moderate or severe aphasia were video-recorded in situations of service encounters, e.g., pharmacies, specialised shops, restaurants, and others. We identified fifty-nine occurrences with one or several difficulties in the formulation of the request. They were examined, including the clerks’ responses and ensuing interaction using multimodal conversation analysis. Results showed that PLWA used nonverbal communication within the physical environment and the context of the interaction to support verbal production. In the majority of situations, the clerks understood the request promptly. In other situations, they both collaborated to achieve a clear understanding of the request. Moreover, the findings attest to the competence of people living with moderate or severe aphasia in engaging in service encounters and add to the knowledge base about interaction and social participation in aphasia.

KEYWORDS:

• Post-stroke aphasia
• service encounters
• requests
• multimodal conversation analysis
• participation

Acknowledgments

We are especially grateful to all participants. We also thank the shop owners and stakeholders who allowed us to collect data on their premises. We acknowledge the financial support provided by scholarships awarded by the CRIR and the FRQSC.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This paper presents independent research funded under the doctoral research scholarships of the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture [reference number 194114].