My inspiration for this Multi Genre Research Project came from my great-grandfather. He is 98 years old and occassionally has mini strokes which are contributing to dementia. He drove until he was 92 and amazed us all with his good health. He had a fall and from then on hasn’t been the same. It was a very gradual decline with extreme episodes of confusion and illness now and then. He is tired and weak now and is confused about a lot of things. He does recognize everyone, but slurs his speech quite a bit and sometimes we have to repeat ourselves in order for him to understand us, but part of the repitition is because he has hearing loss. In light of that I chose dementia as the topic for my research project, focusing on the affects it has on communication.
There are a few other of my classmates who chose to research different aspects of dementia and we have shared some information and discussed the topic with each other to gain a better understanding. They have helped me quite a but and I would like to thank them for that.
A big thank you to those classmates who commented on my work along the way. I know that it was an assignment and we probably would not have given each other so much feedback had we not been instructed to, but I appreciate the thought that was put into the comments you gave because they helped tremendously in revising each piece of my project.
I would also like to thank the members of my mailing list. I learned so much from them by reading their e-mails to each other. I think the support and knowledge that they share with one another is very special.
Lastly, I want to thank the people in my life who listened to me complain about this project along the way and for proof reading each page. Thank you for putting up with me!
