Kay hadn’t been to the local grocery store by herself since her stroke. While she needed a little extra time due to her non-fluent aphasia, she also needed some practice to build up her self-confidence. Dr. Lori asked Kay questions about grocery-shopping scenarios to find that Kay was very nervous about interacting with cashiers and handling money.
Kay and Dr. Lori discussed that there are only a few possible topics and communication exchanges during grocery check-out, which limits the possible responses Kay would need. First, they practiced together using cue cards so Kay would know what to expect.
This video shows the second practice, in which Kay no longer needs cue cards. Dr. Lori improvises in this scene to show that sometimes interactions change a little. Kay realized that it wasn’t as terrible as she thought it would be, even if she was nervous.
Dr. Lori and Kay then practiced and improvised in different parts of the facility to generalize the skill. Kay did an amazing job!