Primary language

Kevcoy

My DH's father was Mexican and mother was hispanic from Texas. My DH was born in Juarez and grew up in El Paso and his primary language was Spanish. He learned English threw the years and was fluent in both languages. As the disease is progressing he is speaking more and more in Spanish to me (which I understand very little). I have been reading that this is yet another aspect of Alzheimer's that they forget their secondary language and revert back to their primary language. Has anyone had this happen to them and what stage do you think this happened?

ButterflyWings

@Kevcoy I have seen that somewhere, but can't put my fingers on it just yet. Will keep looking for you.

This is an interesting article I ran across in the meantime. https://scottishcare.org/losing-a-language-dementia-and-bilingualism/

ButterflyWings

This says "middle stages" but does not pin it down. I guess that means, 4 or 5? https://www.alz.org/help-support/caregiving/stages-behaviors/middle-stage

JJ401

When my mother-in-law was in memory care, there was another resident who had reverted to only speaking Portuguese. Prior to his dementia he had held a job that required public presentations (in English). Now English was a mystery to him.

harshedbuzz

@Kevcoy This is, indeed, a thing.

I have a dear friend whose mom had dementia when dad did. Mom left Germany not long after the war as a very young adult sponsored by an aunt. She worked in NYC and learned English before marrying a fellow German immigrant and moving to Duchess County where they moved into an enclave of recent immigrants. Both her parents were fluent in English and spoke it at home although they might use German socializing with friends or when they traveled back to see family.

My friend never became a confident German-speaker but could mostly understand it and speak a little. She was an ELL teacher at the time and had training and access to tools to help bridge this which was fortunate. They were fortunate for a time to find a HHA who spoke German which helped a lot around keeping mom socialized.

As her mom reached around stage 5, her English became sprinkled heavily with German nouns and phrases. At night when she said her prayers, they were always in German at this point. By stage 6, mom would often have days where it was German-only. I stayed with her once during an emergency, and I have no idea if she understood my English, but she answered in a mix of the two languages.

HB

mrahope

OK, I'm getting a bit scared now. My DH was born and raised in a southeast Asian nation whose principal language I speak, but not fluently. He's lived in the US for most of the last 50 years, but has continued to communicate to family in his home country in his native tongue. He also speaks a "mother's knee" local language, which is widely spoken in his home city but is NOT the official language of that country. I can barely understand that one (catching maybe a word or two out of each sentence). We live in a semi-rural area and I can't imagine finding anyone who could interpret. Has anyone found this a barrier to MC care?

FWIW, DH was always a lover of languages, and in addition to the above languages (and English, of course) spoke French fluently, and some amount of Spanish and Arabic. Sad to think this talent for languages might be something that goes away as his disease worsens.