This volume takes the positive view that conversation between persons with dementia and their interlocutors is a privileged site for ongoing cognitive engagement. The book aims to identify and describe specific linguistic devices or strategies at the level of turn-by-turn talk that promote and extend conversation, and to explore real-world engagements that reflect these strategies. Final reflections tie these linguistic strategies and practices to wider issues of the "self" and "agency" in persons with dementia. Thematically, the volume fosters an integrated perspective on communication and cognition in terms of which communicative resources are recognized as cognitive resources, and communicative interaction is treated as reflecting cognitive engagement. This reflects perspectives in cognitive anthropology and cognitive science that regard human cognitive activity as distributed and culturally rooted. This volume is intended for academic researchers and advanced students in applied linguistics, linguistic and medical anthropology, nursing, and social gerontology; and practice professionals in speech-language pathology and geropsychology.

Clarify your thinking on an issue that can tear families apart!Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Christian Perspective is the touching story of a woman’s daily struggles as a caregiver to her mother who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. You’ll learn how God’s presence in her life has helped her. You will also find practical day-to-day tips for living with a loved one suffering from senile dementia and how your spirituality can make the journey easier for both of you. This important guide provides an honest description of the emotions you may be forced to come to terms with while dealing with a loved one or parishioner with Alzheimer’s disease and how God’s presence in your life can help lift that burden.Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Disease gives you firsthand accounts of the stages of pain, despair, acceptance, and victory that you may experience while caring for someone with Alzheimer’s to let you know that what you are feeling is normal and that God will help you overcome these challenges. Alzheimer’s disease often goes undetected until its later stages. This informative book renders a clear description of the disease, alerting you to the known warning signs of dementia, and preparing you for the possibility of such a diagnosis.Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Disease is filled with tips and suggestions to make caring for your loved one easier for both of you, such as: learning to separate the person from the disease researching the disease and keeping informed about every aspect of this progressive and irreversible neurological disorder realizing that you need emotional support and should seek help from your pastor, church care group, or best friend discovering how having power of attorney and creating a living will can prevent many problems in the future understanding that to care for your loved one at home is challenging and that taking simple steps, such as “baby-proofing” your house, will prevent traumatic disasters turning your anger and guilt to positive energy and avoiding emotional drain and strainThis unique book offers you solace amidst the turbulence of caring for someone stricken with this difficult condition. Caring for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Disease provides an open and honest description of how faith can comfort and support you and your family while you care for someone with dementia.

Traditionally, dementia has been defined primarily in terms of loss: loss of cognitive and communicative competencies, loss of identity, loss of personal relationships. People living with dementia have been portrayed as increasingly dependent on others, with their loved ones seen more as care givers than as spouses, children and relatives. However, in the last two decades this view of the person living with dementia as an 'empty vessel' has been increasingly challenged, and the focus has shifted from one of care to one of helping people to live with dementia. With contributions from an international range of expert authors, Living with Dementia strongly advocates this new perspective through in-depth discussion of what people with dementia and their loved ones can do, and how they can actively make use of remaining resources. Topics covered include: - How to involve people with dementia in collaborative activities in the home, and the benefits this has on their cognitive and communicative abilities. - Ways in which identity can be presented and preserved through storytelling, and the impact on identity of moving from home into residential care. - The benefits of a 'citizenship' approach to dementia: of recognising that a person living with dementia is an active agent, with the right to self-determination and the ability to exert power over their own lives. This important new contribution to the dementia debate is truly enlightening reading for students across the full range of health and social care disciplines, and offers a fresh perspective to existing practitioners and those who care for people with dementia.

Alison Wray notes that “Alzheimer’s Disease affects language in many different ways. Directly, language processing is undermined by damage to the language areas of the brain. Indirectly, language is compromised by short term memory loss, distortions in perception, and disturbed semantic representation . . . All of this makes AD an obvious focus of interest for linguists and in particular, those interested in the field of pragmatics – yet a striking amount of what is published about AD language is written by non-linguists. AD language is independently researched in at least psychology, neuroscience, sociology, clinical linguistics and nursing. Each discipline has its own methods, theories, assumptions and values, which affect the research questions asked, the empirical approach taken in answering them, and how the evidence is interpreted. Without a more reliable holistic picture informed by linguistic and applied linguistic theory and methods, approaches to diagnosis and care risk being constrained, and may result in a less than satisfactory experience for all those whose daily life involves the direct or indirect experience of AD.” This book is an attempt to address some of the above issues noted by bringing together a group of researchers whose work focuses on interaction in the context of dementia. The authors represent the fields of linguistics, clinical linguistics, nursing, and speech pathology, and each chapter draws on methods associated with discourse analysis and pragmatics to examine how people with dementia utilize language in the presence of cognitive decline. In addition, the book seeks to generate academic discussion on how researchers can move forward to focus greater attention on this topic. In particular, this collection will inspire researchers involved in mainstream theoretical linguistics and pragmatics to turn their attention to the discourse of dementia and investigate what it has to say about our knowledge of language theories, and, in addition, to challenge what we know about ourselves as subjective beings.

This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the theories of cognition and language processing relevant to the field of communication disorders. Thoroughly updated in its second edition, the book explores a range of topics and issues that illustrate the relevance of a dynamic interaction between both theoretical and applied clinical work. Beginning with the origins of language evolution, the authors explore a range of both developmental and acquired communication disorders, reflecting the variety and complexity of psycholinguistics and its role in extending our knowledge of communication disorders. The first section outlines some of the major theoretical approaches from psycholinguistics and cognitive neuroscience that have been influential in research focusing on clinical populations, while Section II features examples from researchers who have applied this body of knowledge to developmental disorders of communication. Section III features examples focusing on acquired language disorders, and finally, Section IV considers psycholinguistic approaches to gesture, sign language, and alternative and augmentative communication (AAC). The new edition features new chapters offering fresh perspectives, further reading recommendations and a new epilogue from Jackie Guendouzi. This valuable text serves as a single interdisciplinary resource for graduate and upper-level undergraduate students in cognitive neurosciences, psychology, communication sciences and disorders, as well as researchers new to the field of communication disorders or to psycholinguistic theory.

An authoritative overview of language and speech disorders, featuring new and updated chapters written by leading specialists from across the field The Handbook of Speech and Language Disorders, Second Edition, provides timely and authoritative coverage of current issues, foundational principles, and new research directions within the study of communication disorders. Building upon the reputation of the landmark first edition, this volume offers an exceptionally broad and in-depth survey of the field, presenting original chapters by internationally recognized specialists that examine an array of language, speech, and cognitive disorders and discuss the most crucial aspects of this evolving discipline while providing practical information on analytical methods and assessment. Now in its second edition, the Handbook features extensively revised and refocused content throughout, reflecting the latest advances in the field. Original and updated chapters explore diverse topics including literacy and literacy impairments, patterns of normal and disordered language development, hearing impairment and cochlear implants, language acquisition and language delay, dementia, dysarthria, ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, and many others. This acclaimed single-volume reference resource: Provides 26 original chapters which describe the latest in new research and which indicate future research directions Covers new developments in research since the original publication of the first edition Features in-depth coverage of the major disorders of language and speech, including new insights on perception, hearing impairment, literacy, and genetic syndromes Includes a series of foundational chapters covering a variety of important general principles, including labelling, diversity, intelligibility, assessment, and intervention The Handbook of Speech and Language Disorders, Second Edition, is essential reading for researchers, scholars, and students in speech and language pathology, speech, language and hearing sciences, and clinical llinguistics, as well as active practitioners and clinicians.

This innovative collection examines key questions on language diversity and multilingualism running through contemporary debates in psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Reinforcing interdisciplinary conversations on these themes, each chapter is co-authored by two different researchers, often those who have not written together before. The combined effect is a volume showcasing unique and dynamic perspectives on such topics as multilingualism across the lifespan, bilingual acquisition, family language policy, language and ageing, language shift, language and identity, and multilingualism and language impairment. The book builds on Elizabeth Lanza’s pioneering work on multilingualism across the lifespan, bringing together cutting-edge research exploring multilingualism as an evolving phenomenon at landmarks in individuals’, families’, and communities’ lives. Taken together, the book offers a rich portrait of the different facets of multilingualism as a lived reality for individuals, families, and communities. This ground-breaking volume will be of particular interest to students and scholars in multilingualism, applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics.

This book brings together international, linguistic research with a focus on interaction in multilingual encounters involving people with dementia in care and healthcare settings. The methodologies used (Conversation Analysis, Ethnography and Discursive Constructionism) capture practices on the micro-level, revealing how very subtle details may be of critical importance for the everyday well-being of participants with dementia, particularly in settings and contexts where there is a lack of a common verbal language of interlocutors, or where language abilities have been lost as a result of dementia. Chapters analyse the practices and actions employed by interlocutors to facilitate mutual understanding, enhance high-quality social relations and assure optimal care and treatment, in spite of language and cognitive difficulties, with an emphasis put on the participants’ remaining capacities, and what can be achieved between people with dementia and their interlocutors in a collaborative fashion. This book goes beyond the study of two-party communication to address multiparty and group interactions which are common in residential care and other healthcare settings and will be of interest to professionals and policy makers as well as to medical sciences and linguistics researchers and students.

This groundbreaking collection is the first to focus specifically on LGBT* people and dementia. It brings together original chapters from leading academics, practitioners and LGBT* individuals affected by dementia. Multi-disciplinary and international in scope, it includes authors from the UK, USA, Canada and Australia and from a range of fields, including sociology, social work, psychology, health care and socio-legal studies. Taking an intersectional approach – i.e. considering the plurality of experiences and the multiple, interacting relational positions of everyday life – LGBT Individuals Living with Dementia addresses topics relating to concepts, practice and rights. Part One addresses theoretical and conceptual questions; Part Two discusses practical concerns in the delivery of health and social care provision to LGBT* people living with dementia; and Part Three explores socio-legal issues relating to LGBT* people living with dementia. This collection will appeal to policy makers, commissioners, practitioners, academics and students across a range of disciplines. With an ageing and increasingly diverse population, and growing numbers of people affected by dementia, this book will become essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the needs of, and providing appropriate services to, LGBT* people affected by dementia.