DEAFwith
DEMENTIA
NHS Cognitive Disorder Clinic
Project
Dementia
www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/dwd
Deaf signers are usually diagnosed late.
Changes in the brain affect memory,
language and problem solving.
Ask your GP to refer you if
Research and
the Older Deaf
Community
you are a Deaf sign language user
you or your family or friends have
noticed big changes in your memory,
thinking or behaviour
Your GP needs to send a referral letter stating
that you are a Deaf BSL user to:
Dr Mummery, BOX 16, NHNN, Queen Square,
London WC1N 3BG
5
Should I be worried?
THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO
HAS SUPPORTED OUR RESEARCH
2 1
4 3
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Earlier diagnosis is
important so that
Deaf people can live
well with dementia,
access services and
treatments, and plan
for the future.
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4 3
We developed new memory and
thinking tests to help diagnose deaf
people earlier.
DCAL is working with UCL
Partners Hospital for
Neurology and Neurosurgery
in London. They now offer
appointments for older Deaf
patients living in the UK.
NO Small changes are part of normal
ageing. Everyone sometimes:
forgets names and
faces
loses glasses or keys
YES
Bigger changes, like
getting lost in
familiar areas, may
point to a problem
such as dementia.
CONTACT US:
Deafness Cognition and Language Research
Centre, 49 Gordon Square,
London WC1H 0PD
www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal
to see website for more information
@ general enquires: dcal@ucl.ac.uk
older adult research: joanna.atkinson@ucl.ac.uk
Fax:
020 7679 8691
Would you like to volunteer for DCAL
research?
Register with our participant database:
www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/getting-involved/
Research_Participation
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DEAFNESS, COGNITION AND
LANGUAGE RESEARCH CENTRE
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Research with older Deaf Signers.
Healthy Deaf Ageing
Parkinson’s Disease
BSL Sign Bank Dictionary
DCAL filmed Deaf people of
different ages around the UK.
Older signers used more
regional signs than younger
signers. For example, older
people use many signs for “6"
but younger signers tend to
use only two of these signs.
DCAL are creating an online
dictionary which everyone
can use.
www.bslcorpusproject.org/data/
Before we can identify memory
and thinking problems, we need
to understand normal changes in
Deaf people as they get older.
Our research shows this still
happens among older Deaf people
today.
We plan to look at younger signers
to see if things are changing now
that we have professional
interpreters.
email: r.adam@ucl.ac.uk
They may have less
face expression. Lip
patterns and
handwriting may
get smaller too.
We tested healthy deaf people
aged 50-89 years at EDDJ holiday
camp for older Deaf people. Now,
if a Deaf person is worried, we can
compare their test scores to
healthy deaf
scores, and
identify
dementia and
other problems
sooner.
Deaf “translators”
Did you know through history Deaf
people have always supported other
Deaf people with communication
and translating English documents?
Parkinson's is a movement
disorder. Research shows Deaf
people with Parkinson's sign slowly.
Their movements become smaller
and their handshapes become less clear.
They still
understand other
people's signs.
DEAF
STROKE
Stroke
Research has shown that sign like
speech is processed by the left brain.
Deaf people with strokes on left side
of brain sometimes have problems
with sign language. This is called
aphasia.
They might not understand signs.
P ro je c t
They might not be able to produce signs.