Chapter 19 Vocabulary: Providing Care for People with Cognitive Changes and Dementia

Problems with communication resulting from damage to the brain.

Memory loss

The inability to plan and perform purposeful motor movements to complete a task despite having the ability and the desire to perform the task.

Difficulties remembering or recalling information, or learning new information, that occur with normal aging and do not impair a person's ability to carry out normal routines and activities.

The inability to use language to express oneself, verbally or in writing (or both)

A rapid change in cognition that is related to chemical changes in the body.

The inability to understand communication from others.

Excessive suspicion without cause

Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, or feeling something that does not exist.

memory of recent events

A term used to describe a cluster of symptoms involving progressive decline in memory and thinking abilities, such as the use of language and the ability to reason and make judgments.

Memory of the past

A technique for working with those with cognitive impairment or dementia that shows respect for the person's thoughts and feelings and validates (acknowledges) what the person believes, regardless of the actual truth.

Problems with memory, language, or thinking processes that are noticeable to other people, but do not interfere with the person's ability to live a normal life.

A fixed false belief