Aging Flashcards
1
Q
How to make food safe and palatable for the very elderly:
A
- Increase moisture content with sauces, custards etc - easier to form bolus.
- Soft foods (Avoid dry or crunchy food, ie flaky pastry, corn, meat).
- Hot/cold drinks/food
- finger foods (easier than cutlery)
- No mixed textures - need to have enough control to hold soupy bit in the mouth while chewing the meat and harder bits, which requires good control, so make everything one texture.
- Strong flavours, as taste is reduced in elderly.
2
Q
Communication Predicament of Aging model:
A
- Encounter with older person
- recognition of old age cues
- stereotyped expectations
- modified speech behaviour (‘elderspeak’)
- a) reinforcement of age stereotyped behaviours b) constrained opportunities for communication (ie hostility, communication shut down)
- a) Lessened psychological activity and social interaction b) Loss of personal control and self esteem
- Negative changes in old age cues
back to 1. encounter …(giving off even more old age cues -> downward spiral)
3
Q
Communication enhancement model:
A
- Encounter with older person
- Recognition of cues on an individual basis
- modified communication to accommodate individual needs (or not, if no special needs)
- Individual assessment for multi-focused interventions
- empowerment of client and provider
- a) increased effectiveness and satistfaction of provider
b) optimised health well-being and competence of elder - maximized communication skills and opportunities.
and back to 1. encounter with older person (who feels good about themselves and competent…)
4
Q
How does language change as people become elderly?
A
- declines in both comprehension and production.
- 6 cognitive aging models of language processing
- 3 categories of language
1. phonology and orthography
2. Semantics
3. Syntax
5
Q
What happens with phonology and orthography in aging?
A
PERCEPTION: 1. Decline in sensory processes: - visual and auditory acuity 2. Decline in cognition/processing: -speech in noise -speech rates PRODUCTION: 1. Decline in word retrieval 2. Decline in spelling
6
Q
What happens with semantics in aging?
A
PERCEPTION: **Area of STRENGTH until very old age** -Slower processing of speech -better vocab (education) PRODUCTION: -Decreased density of ideas in discourse - More off-topic speech -maybe communication goals are different -> rich story telling
7
Q
What happens with syntax in aging?
A
PERCEPTION:
- declines for text with greater sytactic complexity
- ?working memory declines
PRODUCTION:
-Decline in syntactic complexity in spoken and written language (fewer left-branching sentences)
8
Q
Some challenges with diagnosing communication/swallowing difficulties in elders:
A
- Increased age = increased complexity *multiple medical conditions more likely.
- medication can affect communication and swallowing.
- Can be difficult to tell if swallowing changes are normal ages, or whether there is an underlying pathalogical process.
9
Q
Factors which impact on speech and swallowing changes in old age:
A
- Tooth loss
- Tissue and muscular changes in jaw, tongue, salivary glands and throat.
- Decreased salivery glands -> reduced taste sensation -> a) decreased appitite b) more difficulty masticating c) more time taken to eat d) change in food choices -> nutritional impact.
- Decreased saliva can make articulation more difficult (speech)
10
Q
What imact to respiration changes in aging have on speech, swallowing and voice?
A
- chest wall complience and elasticity, decrease elastic recoil of lungs
- reduced lung and airway function due to environmental exposures
- -> reduced ease of respiration affects both speech, voice and swallowing.
11
Q
Cognitive Model of aging 1 - Resource theory:
A
Premise: Human capactiy for processing information is limited
- > Difficulty percieving a word affects subsequent mental operations such as how well it is remembered
- > Difficult perceptual operations use more resources and this drains resources from subsequent cognitive operations, including language and memory processes.
12
Q
Cognitive Model of aging 2 - General Slowing theory
A
- > age-related declines in cognitive performance are caused by slowing of component processes (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics)
- > some cognitive operations may be executed too slowly for their successful competion in the available time or their completion may spill over depeting the time available for succeesive operations.
- > cause increase in speech comprehension errors
- > slowing impairs functionsrequiring simultaneous availablity of information because information from early processes may have decayed by the time intormation from later processes is produced.
13
Q
Cognitive Model of aging 3 - Inhibition deficit theory
A
- > aging weakens inhibitory processes that regulate attention and the contents of working memory
- > older adults’ conversations are more likely to go off topic
14
Q
Cognitive Model of aging 4 - Working memory theories
A
- Storage and processing functions
- Older adults suffer reductions in working memory capacity and this contains ability to comprehend and produce complex semantic content and complex syntax
- Working memory is limited by capacity rather than overall processing efficiency of the language system
15
Q
Cognitive Model of aging 5 - Transmission deficit theory
A
- Connections are strengthened by recent and frequent use, but are weakened by ageing
- Causes general processing deficits
- Linked to the atrophy of white matter (brain)
