Dealing with nonstop silliness

Buggytoo

My DH has moderate to severe dementia. A few days ago he started speaking fluently in gibberish and he has kept at it for several days. He uses very little normal language and spends his waking hours with nonsense words and rhyme. It was kind of humorous at first and now it has become somewhere between annoying and concerning. Do any of you have experience with this or any suggested strategies for getting it to stop?

JeriLynn66

? Possible UTI?

ButterflyWings

Agree it could be a UTI if this is a sudden change. I'm not sure of your LOs diagnosis, but some types of dementia are characterized by plateaus followed by a big drop or sudden change. Or if the part of the brain that is affected at the moment happens to control speech and communication (temporal lobe, I think) then it could just be the next step in their progression. Lots of "ifs, ands, or buts" with trying to track and decipher each individual PWD's path.

The gibberish is called word salad, and it popped up here a few times, randomly, but each time DH reverted back to his baseline which was increasing word retrieval issues while still being able to get a point across. Though sometimes his point wasn't based in reality, like I had many silent parallel convos with myself such as "no your dad is not in the back seat (buried over 20 years ago...) that's a blanket", or "yes that is your "foot" over there, well actually its your sock but I know what you mean". It was sad but not totally stressful and confusing as gibberish would be -- as he became overall less verbal.

What I did not know is all of this was early signs of his current extreme aphasia which by late Stage 6 became almost total loss of language. This was previously a very gifted public speaker. It breaks my heart now to think about the depth of his loss, mine, and everyone he taught and influenced (and could have if not for thief dementia).

If your LO does not seem frustrated, maybe just go with the flow, nod and say "Wow" every so often to see if it subsides in a day or so. It never hurts to check for a UTI though, especially if other negative behaviors ramp up.

M1

Agree that it may or may not go away. Loss of coherent speech happens in stage 6--we are dealing with it currently. She can still talk, but frequently makes very little sense. The two things she says that still compute are "I love you very much" and "I just want to be with you."

Keep us posted how he does. I'm sure it's maddening.

ButterflyWings

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/197352#Comment_197352

https://daybreakadultdayservices.org/another-a-of-alzheimers-disease/#:~:text=They%20may%20use%20vague%20word,that%20have%20no%20meaning%20together.

This article emphasizes that when we can't understand them, other things are happening in their brains beyond just speech issues. It means they also likely can't understand us. At all. So, some strategies are included to remain patient, empathetic, and speak more slowly and with fewer words to help (maybe) when communication abilities (speaking, reading, comprehending what's heard) begin to go south.

Ed1937

I agree that it could be a UTI. They don't always appear with typical symptoms, but the symptoms that do show up can show a very wide range of crazy new stuff. Confusion is typical, but does not always happen. This is likely the easiest thing to check for, so a urine sample is called for. Of course it could be many other things, but UTIs are common.

Is she on any new medications? That's another possibility worth considering. And there are medications that should not be used with certain types of dementia.

Buggytoo

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/197355#Comment_197355

Very helpful article!

LaneyG

I guess this is aphasia…When my husband has trouble word finding he will frequently fill in the gaps with gibberish and laughs about it. He has even come up with some new words. Other times he just gets really upset. I also know of other instances where PWD will speak all gibberish.

harshedbuzz

"Sillyness" seems to assume some intention-- as if it feels to you like he's trying to annoy you.

This is much more likely to be aphasia caused by disease progression. If the onset was very sudden, a UTI or other infection should be ruled out.

My dad didn't have this exactly. He was a bit unusual in that he was conversational until the day he died. Much of what he said was untrue but the vocabulary, syntax and prosody were intact. That said, he had a kind of vocalization that was especially prominent in stages 4-6 when he was still at home and generally when he was not engaged with someone else. The vocalization was almost like the sounds a young toddler learning to talk would make-- "unoh" and ba-ba-ba" were two I can recall. This did sometimes feel intentional as I especially noticed the behavior if I was visiting with my mom in another room. He didn't do it if she was out and I was alone with him. He did do it for just my mom when they were home alone together. Once I timed him-- he went off every 20 seconds for the 10 minutes I clocked him.

I raised a son with high functioning autism and the notion of behavior is communication has been drilled into me. From that mindset, I wondered if this vocalization was attention seeking. I found on the visits where I made a point to focus my attention on him for the 10 minutes he could focus on conversation he did much less of it. Once we figured this out, she made it a point to check in with him when she noticed it starting even though it was hard for her.

This quick read was useful to me-

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/210580

HB

CindyBum

My DWs speech/word finding issues have progressed to the point were she sometimes thinks I've said nonsense words or offers sentences of complete nonsense. It's part of what comes for some people with dementia.