I am the sole caretaker at this time of my 95 year old mama. I moved her into my home when I lost my husband 3 years ago (could no longer take care of 2 households). Her late onset dementia has really accelerated the past few months. Until she qualifies for Hospice in our state, I am trying my best to take care of her. My mama is a WWII German warbride that came to theU.S. in 1949 and got her citizenship. She spoke English when she met and married my dad. My dad could speak German but could not read or write it. My parents never taught us German except for a few words because they used it for their "private" conversations. My question is has anyone experienced their loved one reverting back to their natural "tongue" as the dementia/alzheimers progresses? She has started using words and sometimes phrases in German and I am struggling to get the meaning because when I ask her to say it in English she can't remember what she said. I have tried to use my Google to tranlate as best I can but that is difficult too.
I see this happening at my dad’s AL with other residents as well.
Best wishes to you as you go through this phase with your loved one.
Gerontology practices affiliated with a teaching hospital and a medical school with have testing in different languages as it’s required under federal funding. Likely translators on staff as well.
For you, this is double the trouble because she's losing her short term, or the thing she tried to tell you just moments ago. So she can't even remember what she just said.
iTranslate is an app for iPhones and Google Translate is for Android phone. You might read up about these two and see if there's a way to keep them open all the time so it catches what she says in German as she speaks. That might help to prevent any delay in you asking her to repeat something.