[Value of conversation groups in institutions for the elderly]

Abstract

Development of group sessions with therapeutic aims have been started in institutions for the elderly in order to combat dementia for which no curative therapy exists at present. This study aims at testing the efficacy of a conversation group on the language of an elderly, depressed and demented population. Pre- and post-therapeutic check-ups and the comparison between a control group and a test group show, on the whole, that the test group's linguistic skills remained unchanged, whereas the control group's perceptibly worsened. Qualitatively, the syntaxical and oral comprehension skills, and more particularly those of picture designation and verbal fluency are especially responsive to stimulation or to the lack of it.