Overview
- The Alzheimer’s Association highlights three early conversational warning signs: stopping mid-conversation, repeating oneself, and using the wrong word for objects.
- These difficulties reflect aphasia, with examples including calling a watch a “hand-clock” or using a related but not quite right term such as jumper instead of jacket.
- Alzheimer’s Scotland reinforced the message on social media, noting that struggling to follow a conversation or find words can be a lesser known indicator.
- The charities place these signs within a wider checklist that includes memory loss disrupting daily life, planning or task difficulties, confusion about time or place, visual–spatial problems, misplacing items, poor judgment, withdrawal, and mood or personality change.
- Coverage notes dementia mainly affects people over 65 and roughly one million in the UK are living with the condition, and it cautions that occasional word-finding lapses can be normal ageing, with NHS advice describing some early problems as mild cognitive impairment that warrants GP evaluation.