What's on Your Mind? Conversation Topics Chosen by People With Degenerative Cognitive-Linguistic Disorders for Communication Boards.

Purpose: Conversational topics chosen by a group of adults with degenerative cognitive-linguistic disorders for personalized communication board development were examined. The patient-generated themes commonly selected are presented to guide treatment planning and communication board development.

Method: Communication boards were created for 109 adults as part of a larger research project.

AAC to support conversation in persons with moderate Alzheimer's disease.

Even though we know that external memory aids support communication in Alzheimer's disease, the components of the communication aids for individuals with Alzheimer's disease have not been studied systematically. The goal of these two pilot experiments was to examine differences in conversational performance of adults with Alzheimer's disease related to the presence and absence of an aid, the type of symbol embedded in the aid, and the presence or absence of voice output. In Experiment 1, 30 adults with moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease participated in 10-min conversations with and without personalized AAC boards.