Lost for Words
Seriously...6 Juli 2021

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

Avsnitt(484)

Redeeming Ricky

Redeeming Ricky

Ex-offender Ricky Gleeson has set up HoodEx, a new sustainable clothing charity in South Shields, Tyne and Wear. Ricky has a remarkable back story – a deeply troubled, chequered past. His mother was i...

3 Nov 202328min

Hoax - The Planted Plants of Rum

Hoax - The Planted Plants of Rum

Mysterious plants appear on the Isle of Rum. Do they prove the island miraculously escaped the Ice Age? And what extraordinary lengths would one scientist go to in order to prove that it did? Dr Tori ...

6 Okt 202314min

The Great Replacement

The Great Replacement

The Great Replacement is an idea fueling far-right recruitment around the world - the idea that white communities and culture are being purposely replaced by non-white migrants. Many far-right terror...

29 Sep 202337min

Memorial No More? A History of Russian Forgetting

Memorial No More? A History of Russian Forgetting

Historian Catherine Merridale witnessed the birth of Memorial in 1989 as the Soviet Union died. An organisation devoted to recovering the past of the Soviet Gulag and soon documenting the new transgre...

22 Sep 202329min

Lego Overboard

Lego Overboard

In 1997 a freak wave washed 62 containers into the sea off a cargo ship near the coast of Cornwall. Inside one were five million pieces of Lego. By a strange quirk of fate, many of the Lego pieces had...

19 Sep 202328min

Archive on 4 - The Holy Blood

Archive on 4 - The Holy Blood

Two decades ago Da Vinci Code mania gripped the world. But the story behind the theory that Jesus Christ had a secret bloodline is more surprising than any thriller. Step aside Indiana Jones and Rober...

15 Sep 202357min

Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer - Episode 1

Bug in the System: The Past, Present and Future of Cancer - Episode 1

Dr Kat Arney explores cancer through the lens of evolution. Why do we get cancer? In this episode we find out that far from being a new disease, cancer is embedded deep in almost every branch of the t...

29 Aug 202329min

BFFs: A Life Built on Friendship

BFFs: A Life Built on Friendship

Emily Knight lives with five housemates. One of them is her partner. But this isn't a student house-share. They are all in their 30s, have no plans to break up the group, and Emily can't imagine life ...

18 Aug 202328min

Populärt inom Samhälle & Kultur

podme-dokumentar
aftonbladet-krim
gynning-berg
p3-dokumentar
en-mork-historia
svenska-fall
creepypodden-med-jack-werner
skaringer-nessvold
mardromsgasten
blenda-2
killradet
rss-nemo-moter-en-van
hor-har
flashback-forever
kod-katastrof
rattsfallen
vad-blir-det-for-mord
rss-mer-an-bara-morsa
rysarpodden
larm-vi-minns