It is important in communicating with someone who has Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, to know the words they have always used for a room like the toilet – did they say “powder room”, “bathroom”, ”can” or another?
If your family member is going into a care center, retirement community or dementia care facility and they spoke a language other than English as a child – be sure to communicate this information to caretakers because, as the disease progresses, also do language skills. The word they used in English might be gone, but the word they learned for “bathroom” as a child remains. Language loss will affect both the receptive and expressive language skills.
So, if their most recent language is their second language, give the caretakers a list of important words in the language of origin and a way to pronounce each for communication that is important like: bathroom, bedtime, mealtime, come, stop, go, yes, no.
Loving comes without language and it is our hope that all who care for those who have lost the ability to communicate with language will continue to care with love.
Watch Linda’s Video Blog Dementia and Communication!