Narrative Exercises in Alzheimer’s Dementia. The Problem of Writing Disorders

• Authors: Domagała Aneta
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

One of forms of working with the patient, justified in Alzheimer’s disease, is to stimulate speech combined with writing (and reading). My own practical solutions – with the use of writing (and reading) – offer narrative exercises thematically oriented towards the patient (his biography), this purpose being served by notebooks intended for this group of patients (Domagała 2007). The present article focuses on the problem of writing disorders – the approach to a patient has to be individualized in this area: such a conclusion follows from Western literature, in which writing disorders in Alzheimer’s disease are discussed as an agraphia/dysgraphia problem. The skills of individual persons are highly diversified as they are dependent on the functioning of the patient in the sphere of verbal and written communication during the period before falling ill, and on changes occurring in the course of the disease. Selected problems are illustrated using the example of my own patients (the structure of the written text; the problem of writing down basic units of the language system: updating of the patterns of cursive and block letters, and capital and small letters; the problem of perseveration). The subject matter of narrative skills is studied as part of the research project “Narrative and Its Disorders in the Course of Alzheimer’s Disease. The Scale of Narrative Skills in Alzheimer’s Dementia” (project manager: Dr Aneta Domagała; 39th Ministry of Science and Higher Education competition of research projects).

Keywords

EN

Alzheimer’s dementia; rehabilitation of communication; narrative skills; written communication disorders

• Publisher: Polskie Towarzystwo Logopedyczne
• Journal: Logopedia
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 41 EN
• Pages: 159-172

Dates

published

2012-01-01

Contributors

author

Domagała Aneta

• Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin Department of Logopedics and Applied Linguistics

References

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Notes

EN

The Study financed from budget funds for science in 2010–2012 as a research project.