| Essential communication skills such as speech, | | | | sufferer. |
| reading and writing begin to be lost in one of the | | | | Eventually their whole speech often becomes |
| most upsetting and frustrating aspects of the | | | | babbling gibberish, and gradually the Alzheimer |
| disease. | | | | sufferer withdraws from talking altogether. |
| While an understanding of simple speech remains | | | | Reading and writing may become affected quite |
| intact during the early stages, the patient can | | | | early in the disease, with spelling difficulties |
| experience growing difficulties in finding and using | | | | becoming apparent. |
| the correct words. | | | | There is also a poor attention span and associated |
| However as the effects of the disease intensify | | | | lack of interest in the task which is often left |
| the patient will have difficultly finishing sentences | | | | uncompleted. |
| and will wander onto another subject and may | | | | The taking of phone messages can prove |
| often repeat the same words over and over | | | | particularly difficult and can often be the key that |
| again. | | | | reveals the first signs of the dementia. |
| The ability to find the words needed to complete | | | | The sufferer will have difficulty following the |
| a sentence or become involved in a conversation | | | | conversation and become confused and |
| also decreases, in other words (paraphrase), are | | | | frightened, making their problem worse. |
| added into the gaps left, the true meaning of the | | | | Communication eventually becomes impossible in |
| conversation can be lost. | | | | advanced stages of the disease as the sufferer is |
| They will also experience increasing difficulty in | | | | usually unable to communicate even their basic |
| interpreting complex conversations, proverbs and | | | | needs to others. |
| metaphors and lose the ability to use or | | | | While some patients exhibit some automatic |
| understand complex sentences. | | | | verbal response on occasions, the burden of |
| This may mean that questions are left answered | | | | communication falls more and more on the |
| because they are not understood and keeping a | | | | shoulders of relatives, friends and care givers. |
| sentence going often proves too difficult for the | | | | |