Communication Access Real‑time Translation (CART) is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Consumer should check with the moderator for any clarification of material.
This text-based course is a written transcript of the event, “Mild Cognitive Impairment Assessment and Treatment,” presented by Kimberly McCullough on March 29, 2012.
>> Amy Natho: I would like to welcome you to SpeechPathology.com e‑Learning experts seminar titled, “Mild Cognitive Impairment Assessment and Treatment.” At this time it is very much a pleasure and an honor to introduce Kim McCullough, Ph.D., CCC‑SLP. Dr. McCullough is Associate Professor at the University of Central Arkansas. She has 17 years of experience as clinician, teacher and researcher in adult neurogenic communication disorders. Welcome Kim, and thank you for being here today.
>> Dr. Kim McCullough: Hello I certainly appreciate this opportunity. I have been using SpeechPathology.com for several years now, and it is a great way to learn new information and also a very convenient way to get CEU's.
We will start the presentation by talking about mild cognitive impairment, what it means to the speech-language pathologist (SLP), and what our roles are going to be as far as assessment and treatment are concerned. We will discuss what normal aging is in relation to mild cognitive impairment, what the definition of mild cognitive impairment is, as well as our role in assessment and treatment. As we get started, I would like to poll the audience. Do you work in a hospital setting? About eight of you work in a hospital setting. What about outpatient? Looks like six or seven people in outpatient. How many are in a long‑term care setting? There are about five people here in the long‑term care setting. An interesting thing about mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is you will see it in outpatient, hospital, as well as long‑term care settings.
Learning Objectives
- Identify normal age-related changes in language and cognition
- List the diagnostic criteria for MCI.
- Describe the role of the SLP in assessment of MCI
- Describe the role of the SLP in treatment of MCI
Change is Coming
Change is certainly inevitable, and even though we do not think about our brain and the changes that occur over time, there is no doubt that there are both anatomical and functional changes taking place as we age. The first indication of these types of age‑related changes usually manifest in behavior. Since our behavior is dictated by our brain, we expect to find anatomical changes in the brain that accompany or manifest in behavioral changes. Some people refer to the aging process as development in reverse. I do not think that is a good description. You might want to think of it more as a continuum or an evolution. Anatomically, the changes that you will see include decreases in brain volume, changes in your gray and white matter, changes in the way your blood flows as well as how nutrients and wastes are metabolized within the brain, and changes in production of neurotransmitters such as dopamine. Functionally, you will see changes in visual perception, attention, language and semantic processing, working memory and executive functions. We will spend most of our time focusing on this continuum, looking at these functional changes, and what our role is, not only with normal aging, but with those who are demonstrating or presenting with mild cognitive impairment.
