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P3‐275: Identifying dementia in deaf sign language users
Author(s) -
Denmark Tanya,
Atkinson Joanna,
Woll Bencie,
Marshall Jane
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1016/j.jalz.2012.05.1498
Subject(s) - psychology , cognition , sentence , dementia , normative , sign language , test (biology) , boston naming test , verbal fluency test , fluency , cognitive test , linguistics , neuropsychology , medicine , psychiatry , paleontology , philosophy , disease , pathology , biology , mathematics education , epistemology
DCAL, University College London, 49 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK Email: t.denmark@ucl.ac.uk SORD, Jean McFarlane Building, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK Email: dwd@manchester.ac.uk This work is funded by the Alzheimer’s Society Background Tests used to identify dementia in users of spoken languages are unsuitable for Deaf people who use sign languages. British Sign Language (BSL) is unrelated to spoken English. Linguistic, cultural and educational differences mean that using interpreters or written English formats is unreliable and error prone, particularly as communication itself is part of the assessment. Diagnosis of deaf patients is typically late with adverse consequences for access to medication, rehabilitation and care planning. Establishing the norms of healthy ageing in the Deaf sign language community in respect of cognitive and linguistic functioning is a necessary precursor to the development of assessment tools that might be used to detect unusual changes associated with dementia. Here we present the first BSL cognitive screening test, akin to the widely used cognitive screens in the UK such as the Mini Mental State Examination and Addenbrookes Cognitive Examination (ACE-r, Mioshi, Dawson et al. 2006). We have begun using this test as part of routine clinical practice with Deaf patients at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in England.