Zaburzenia mowy we wczesnej fazie choroby Alzheimera. Studium przypadków

Speech disorders in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Case studies

A description of the speech of people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, allowing for a verification of the hypothesis that speech disorders in this disease are a pathological intensification of the changes in speech that healthy elderly people undergo.

The author discusses the current research on changes in speech resulting from the physiological process of ageing and on the disorders connected to Alzheimer’s disease, presents a differential diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and of disorders with a similar clinical picture, and describes the tools that can be used in speech disorders diagnosis with this group of patients. Further on, she presents an analysis of the extensive linguistic material obtained from a study group of people with Alzheimer’s disease and from two control groups.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, speech disorders, language skills, language subsystems, diagnosis of speech and language disorders.