A change in my mom's speech

Teachertee

My mom was diagnosed with dementia in January. There were some indicators a year or two ago that are making sense now. She's had driving privileges taken away by her doctor and things are getting progressively worse with confusion about what day it is, where she put things and accurate information with dates / times and handling of money.  

My dad is sharp, mentally and is her primary caregiver.  We live relatively close to each other, fortunately and I have been spending a lot of time with them.

I just noticed the last two days that she has developed a bit of a lisp with certain sounds (for example, she said "pharmathist" instead of pharmacist) and a few other similar things. She's also been using "Wait a minute" over and over when flustered and repeating phrases ending in "and that aspect of things". Conversations are getting challenging to follow with her, but we just go with it and make sure to be kind, even when it becomes unclear.

Is this something to worry about?  Has anyone experienced the same with their loved one?

Thanks for any advice. 

aod326

I don't know specifically about the lisp part, but yes, this is very common. With DH, he would finish every sentence with "It's the truth!", a phrase I'd never heard him say before this. Conversations became very difficult to follow, but DH talked a lot, even though he wasn't making sense and/or repeating the same things constantly (until he wasn't able to talk at all).

What you've said is spot on - lots of "mm's, really's, that sounds good/bad", go a long way. 

It's nothing to worry about in terms of out of the usual dementia behavior. On the other hand, sadly it's a reminder that dementia is a constant downward decline.

harshedbuzz

Teachertree-

Dad developed a bit of a lisp in the late middle stages. TBH, he'd had lost a considerable amount of weight and I think his dentures didn't fit well. If this applies to her, a dental visit might be in order.

I did notice his speech had changed fairly early on. When he initially started to blank of words, he tended to substitute a more "elevated" synonym. For instance, when he was angry at being in rehab he yelled at the DON- "by whose authority am I incarcerated in this place?". 

His speech also became very scripted early on. He not only told the same stories ad nauseum he retold them word-for-word with the same pitch and prosody. 

HB

MN Chickadee

My mom definitely started doing that. It wasn't quite so sudden, it probably happened over the course of a few months, but otherwise similar. She had these catch phrases like you mention that would come up over and over in conversation and words she would use kind of as filler when she couldn't come up with what she was trying to actually communicate. It can be a normal part of the disease. When any decline comes suddenly it can be good to rule out physical causes. Sometimes a UTI or infection can be otherwise "silent" other than some odd change in behavior or abilities. You might want to rule that out, but otherwise this sounds pretty typical for dementia. You learn to just go with it and be patient.

A side note - my mother became pretty non-verbal over the last year. I figured it was partly the progression and partly COVID, with being more isolated than normal and us not visiting as much. But it just so happened her doctor wanted to tweak her meds a few months ago. Reducing her SSRI by half did wonders. Her speech is better now (I mean not great but I can usually understand what she is getting at now) and her balance and walking is better. She was nearly ready for a wheelchair 6 months ago and now she gets herself up out of a chair and wanders off without even her walker which isn't ideal but at least she is moving more. The half dose is enough to keep any anxiety at bay now that she's kind of in her own little world, but the reduction improved her cognition. It's always worth consulting the physician periodically to see if there are some meds to tweak. 

GothicGremlin

My sister hasn't got a lisp, but her speech did change early on.  As she lost words, she'd substitute other, less common words.  Like - she was trying to describe parallel parking, but she had forgotten the word "parallel", so she substituted the word "linear" instead.  She doesn't do that quite so much now, but she's in later stage 6 now. 

The filler catch phrase I hear all the time is "it is what it is."