Speech and Language Therapy for Dementia

1. Speech and LanguageTherapyfor Dementia

2. Communication • Communication is a process in which people convey information to one another. • As people get older, it becomes common when you know the word but can't immediately recall it, an experience known as a “tip of the tongue” state. • Responses may also become slower, and ability to comprehend complex sentences may deteriorate.

3. Dementia • In older people, the efficiency of hearing may by reduced, and in people with dementia it can make it more difficult to access information through language. • Visual difficulties can also slow down the ability to focus and read, which can increase the effect on communication.

4. Interaction • Opportunities to interact with others enable mental and physical stimulation, which can help to foster communication. • Many older people experience social isolation that may be caused by immobility and be made worse by a decrease in their social network, causing communication opportunity to dwindle.

5. Language Problems • Different types of dementia produce different language problems, but typically you may experience difficulties with word-finding and naming, comprehension of language, memory problems impacting on conversation (like forgetting what has been said), later difficulties with sentence production, difficulties with reading and difficulties with reference (he, she, it).

6. Therapy Can Help • Speech and Language Therapy can asses and chart the pattern of difficulties that a person with dementia may have, but more importantly it can asses the preserved abilities that the person shows in order to use compensatory strategies such as 'cueing‘.

7. Therapy Can Help • Therapy allows family and friends to understand the ways in which the person with dementia’s language is breaking down so they know how to achieve the best possible level of communication with them, increasing their opportunity for stimulation.

8. Charting Developments • Assessment of communication difficulties can be charted throughout the early stages of dementia in order to help identify changes in communication abilities later on. • This assessment can be helpful in distinguishing changes to do with having dementia from normal changes, and will help to demonstrate preserved abilities that can be used effectively in communication.

9. Therapy • Speech and Language Therapy can minimize the disruption to communication caused by dementia by using alternative forms of communication; such as drawing. • Therapy can also reduce communication stress, as well as teach the families of people with dementia how to be sensitive to the different ways in which people speak.

10. Therapy • Speech and Language Therapy is a good way to promote and achieve effective communication between people with dementia and others, as well as showing their families that though they have some difficulties with their language, they are still able to communicate if their abilities are identified and used to their advantage.