PostHole
Compose
Login
Lost for words
Struggling to find words might be one of the first things we notice when someone develops dementia, while more advanced speech loss can make it really challenging to communicate with loved ones. And understanding what’s behind these changes may help us overcome communication barriers when caring for someone living with the condition.
When Ebrahim developed Alzheimer’s Disease, for example, he’d been living in the UK for many years. Gradually his fluent English faded and he reverted to his mother tongue, Farsi - which made things tricky for his English-speaking family who were caring for him. Two decades on, his son, the journalist and author David Shariatmadari, seeks answers to his father’s experience of language loss. What can neuroscience reveal about dementia, ageing, and language changes? Why are some aspects of language more vulnerable than others - and, importantly, what are the best approaches to communicating with someone living with dementia?
David reflects on archive recordings of his dad, and speaks to a family in a similar situation to theirs, to compare the ways they tried to keep communication alive. And he discovers there are actually clear benefits to bilingualism when it comes to dementia: juggling two or more languages can delay the onset of symptoms by around four years. So while losing one of his languages posed practical difficulties for Ebrahim, it’s possible that by speaking two languages in the first place, he was able to spend more valuable lucid years with his family.
Presented by David Shariatmadari and produced by Cathy Edwards
Accessibility links
BBC World Service
Discovery
- Discovery Home
- Episodes
- Galleries
- Podcast
- Join us on Facebook
Main content
Listen now
Lost for words
Discovery
Struggling to find words is often an early sign of dementia; David Shariatmadari explores the science of language, dementia and ageing as he reflects on his own father’s experience
Struggling to find words might be one of the first things we notice when someone develops dementia, while more advanced speech loss can make it really challenging to communicate with loved ones. And understanding what’s behind these changes may help us overcome communication barriers when caring for someone living with the condition.
When Ebrahim developed Alzheimer’s Disease, for example, he’d been living in the UK for many years. Gradually his fluent English faded and he reverted to his mother tongue, Farsi - which made things tricky for his English-speaking family who were caring for him. Two decades on, his son, the journalist and author David Shariatmadari, seeks answers to his father’s experience of language loss. What can neuroscience reveal about dementia, ageing, and language changes? Why are some aspects of language more vulnerable than others - and, importantly, what are the best approaches to communicating with someone living with dementia?
David reflects on archive recordings of his dad, and speaks to a family in a similar situation to theirs, to compare the ways they tried to keep communication alive. And he discovers there are actually clear benefits to bilingualism when it comes to dementia: juggling two or more languages can delay the onset of symptoms by around four years. So while losing one of his languages posed practical difficulties for Ebrahim, it’s possible that by speaking two languages in the first place, he was able to spend more valuable lucid years with his family.
Presented by David Shariatmadari and produced by Cathy Edwards
###
####
Higher quality (128kbps)
Lower quality (64kbps)
Available now
27 minutes
Last on
Mon 16 Aug 2021
00:32GMT
BBC World Service except Americas and the Caribbean
More episodes
Previous
Next
The Life Scientific: Dr Nira Chamberlain
See all episodes from Discovery
Broadcasts
Mon 9 Aug 2021
19:32GMT
BBC World Service
Tue 10 Aug 2021
01:32GMT
BBC World Service
Tue 10 Aug 2021
08:32GMT
BBC World Service
Featured in...
Memories and Dementia
Understanding dementia with stories, investigations & music.
Space
The eclipses, spacecraft and astronauts changing our view of the Universe
The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry
[The Curious Cases of Rutherford and Fry]
A pair of scientific sleuths answer your perplexing questions. Ask them anything!
Podcast
Discovery
Explorations in the world of science.
Related Links
A Study of Language in Later Life (edinburgh.eu.qualtrics.com)
Dr Thomas Bak (www.ed.ac.uk)
Brittany Blankinship (www.ed.ac.uk)
Professor Alison Wray (www.cardiff.ac.uk)
Lingo Flamingo (www.lingoflamingo.co.uk)
Guardian Carers (guardiancarers.co.uk)
Open University – Learning Languages with Senior Learners (www.open.edu)
Similar programmes
By genre:
- Factual > Science & Nature
By format:
Magazines & Reviews
[BBC World Service homepage]
News in more than 40 languages