Author(s)

Guylaine Le Dorze^1,2*, Judith Villeneuve^1,2, Anna Zumbansen^1,2, Michèle Masson-Trottier^1,2, Carolina Bottari^2,3

¹School of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.
²Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal, Montreal, Canada.
³Occupational Therapy Program, School of Rehabilitation, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal, Montreal, Canada.

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify the types of verbal assistance that facilitate task progression in individuals with cognitive deficits secondary to traumatic brain injury (TBI). Methods: Two individuals with moderate-to-severe TBI needing verbal assistance to complete the “Obtaining Information task” of the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Profile were selected. A qualitative conversational analysis was conducted on the complete verbatim of the interactions that occurred between the evaluator and each participant while planning how they would find the information. The evaluator provided the least possible assistance to observe the maximal levels of independence of each individual. Results and Outcomes: Six types of verbal assistance, offered in response to each participant’s specific problems, facilitated goal formulation for finding information: restarting, scaffolding, cueing, action priming, offer of a strategy, and explicit advice. Explicit advice that involved the therapist thinking for the person was only provided after numerous other types of more implicit assistance had failed to facilitate task progression. Conclusions: Therapists can facilitate task-related goal formulation and attainment in individuals with cognitive limitations using several types of well-adjusted verbal assistance.

Traumatic Brain Injury, Verbal Assistance, Qualitative Analysis, IADL

Dorze, G. , Villeneuve, J. , Zumbansen, A. , Masson-Trottier, M. and Bottari, C. (2014) Verbal Assistance within the Context of an IADL Evaluation. Open Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation, 2, 182-198. doi: 10.4236/ojtr.2014.24024.