Speech and language therapy in dementia assessment and management

Subtle changes in language functioning occur as part of normal ageing. Word-nding diculties and reductions in confrontation naming, verbal uency and spelling have been observed in a number of studies from the sixth decade of life onwards (Au et al., 1995; Stuart-Hamilton and Rabbitt, 1997; Machulda et al., 2013). Grammar simplication and reductions in the understanding of complex (written) language begin from the middle of the eighth decade (Bayles and Tomoeda, 2007). Beyond normal ageing, more pronounced language changes are observed

across many of the cortical dementia syndromes, and are oen diagnostically important for dierentiating between underlying dementia pathologies. e following sections outline these changes.