Language Performance and Impairment of Iraqi Patients with Alzheimer's. A Case Study

Case Study from the year 2019 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, grade: 100, Thi-Qar University, language: English, abstract: This study intends to investigate language performance and impairment elicited in the speech sample of some Iraqi patients diagnosed with Alzheimer¿s. The aim of this study is to see whether Alzheimer¿s disease affects patients¿ language, and if so, what areas of language it affects. In addition, it inspects and explains both language performance and impairment of Alzheimer¿s patients during the disease.

It is hypothesized that Alzheimer¿s patients suffer from sound substitution and omission on the phonological level, that the patients¿ language is affected on both the denotative and connotative sides, that the patients break the rules of turn taking when they engage in conversations, and that Alzheimer¿s patients then suffer from language impairment in these areas. The prominent outcome of this study is that Alzheimer¿s patients suffer from language impairment in the phonological, semantic, and pragmatic areas of language.