Speech Language Therapy

RAZN

My husband was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment. He does well for himself, has no medications to manage, exercises, and sings in two choirs. He does have problems with word retrieval and sometimes needs time to process someone else's speech or express his own needs. We were referred to a speech language therapist. She talked about helping him with all of the things he doesn't need help with yet. How useful is speech language therapy in early stages of dementia? Are there communication strategies we can find on our own?

Thank you!

Lgb35

my DH has the same word finding issues. He has been diagnosed with aphasia. They did want him to do speech therapy but he didn’t want to do it. I am not sure if it would be helpful or not. Sorry I couldn’t help

Iris L.

Speech therapists also do cognitive rehabilitation therapy. You will learn quite a lot from the members here.

Iris

SDianeL

my husband had a speech therapist but it didn’t help. He couldn’t remember what they told him. It also increased his anxiety. 2 visits and the therapist recommended we stop. It was the same with physical therapy. He couldn’t learn to use a walker after the memory care facility took away his cane. The only way you’ll know is to try a visit or two.

allit

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/72769/speech-language-therapy

Last year at the age of 64, my wife, Beth, was diagnosed with MCI. Her symptoms are the same as what you describe of your husband’s symptoms. We found a speech therapist who came to our home. Beth really likes her and has appreciated the tools she’s been given to help work through some of her challenges. Daria also includes the caregiver so that I can also assist when Beth is stuck. We want to do all we can to try to preserve and build on what reserves Beth still has. She’s also getting the Leqembi infusion. If that’s helping, we figure the speech therapy will be useful for maintaining function. Here is her website if you’d like to see what she offers. By the way, I’m guessing singing in choirs is really good for cognitive stimulation.

https://www.strongerpathways.com/about-me-1