Ruth Tappen, Ed.D., RN, FAAN

The Effect of Group Based Intervention to Improve Functional Communication in Individuals with Early Alzheimer's Disease

Anomia (word finding difficulty) and increasing use of pronouns with vague antecedents are the primary expressive problems in early Alzheimer's disease. Difficulty understanding long or very complex discussions and remaining focused on the main point (not being diverted by secondary points) are the primary receptive problems.

So far little has been done to help the person with early stage AD improve his/her communication skills. There is evidence, however, that some improvement maybe possible mnemonic strategies and repeated presentation (rehearsal) have been successfully used to learn the names of group members in an early intervention program. To further test communication-focused interventions, we propose to examine the effect of a group-based communication focused intervention on communicative ability of individuals with early stage AD and to compare the effect of group-based communication focused intervention with a placebo group-based exercise intervention of similar time and intensity