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Caring for individuals with Alzheimer's dementia requires an interdisciplinary approach, with speech-language pathologists (SLPs) playing a critical role. The SLP's role in the management of individuals with Alzheimer's dementia, and their families/caregivers, requires both direct and indirect assessment and intervention techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide a succinct overview of the evidence-based assessment and intervention options across levels of severity and stage of the disease process.

Language attrition research often focuses on adults living in non-native language environments for many years. Many of these individuals are older adults when tested. Because certain aspects of language are vulnerable to both attrition and ageing (e.g., lexical retrieval), some of the changes observed for language attriters may be due in part to ageing. In this chapter we ask: Are native-language changes for older adult attriters solely a result of reduced levels of native-language use or are they due in part to ageing? We consider neurophysiological changes that may play a role in language attrition and in non-pathological ageing to speculate whether the neurobiological sources of these two processes are similar or different. As attrition and ageing appear to exert independent effects on lexical retrieval decline, one must consider the effects of each of these factors on lexical retrieval for older adult bilinguals immersed in a non-native language environment

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that impacts memory, language, and other cognitive processes, with the prevalence of AD in the United States projected to increase to approximately 13.8 million by 2050. With the anticipated increase in AD cases and medical scientific advances, there was a need to update clinical diagnostic criteria that were established in the 20th century. The purpose of this article is to review the updated diagnostic standards to provide a framework for SLP's working with this population.

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