title: Effects of four years of exercise, language, and social interventions on Alzheimer discourse.
abstract: This article describes a comprehensive cognitive-linguistic intervention program for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients that provided communication skills practice in the context of health-enhancing and esteem-building community-based activities: physical fitness training and supervised volunteer work. The interventions were administered by undergraduate students who completed academic work, received faculty supervision, and earned three credits for one semester of participation. Effects of the interventions on the discourse of four participants who completed all 4 years of the program are reported in detail. The maintained or improved performance on multiple discourse outcome measures provides powerful rationale for making such interventions more widely available and preliminary support for their effectiveness in preserving communicative function. An additional role for speech-language pathologists (SLPs)--as trainers and supervisors of non-professional rehab partners for persons with dementia--is proposed.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  From this article, participants will be able to (1) list specific language tasks that can be used to assess discourse in individuals with AD; (2) identify several cognitive-linguistic interventions appropriate for use with AD patients; and (3) understand how long-term cognitive-linguistic interventions may affect the language performance of individuals with AD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communicative Sciences & Disorders, California State University, Hayward, CA, USA. nidhiaz@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Nidhi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mahendra
authors.forename: Sharon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Arkin
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods; D005081:Exercise Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007808:Language Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010809:Physical Fitness; D013070:Speech Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013336:Students, Health Occupations; D014481:United States; D014838:Volunteers / Q000458:organization & administration*