The word Alzheimer s has long suggested a tremendous emotional burden for patients and those caring for them. That does not need to be so, however. In LEARNING TO SPEAK ALZHEIMER`S, the nationally acclaimed expert Joanne Koenig Coste offers a groundbreaking approach to dealing with the disease so that both parties thrive. In a friendly, knowledgeable style, she offers five tenets in what she calls the habilitation approach to caring for people with progressive dementia. Besides outlining her habilitation philosophy, Koenig Coste offers hundreds of practical tips: offer foods to eat with fingers instead of utensils; eliminate bathroom mirrors if a patient wants privacy but believes the mirror image is that of a stranger; adjust lighting to eliminate shadows that may scare the patient. Koenig Coste developed her approach after her middle-aged husband developed progressive dementia. For thirty years she has refined the technique by working with thousands of patients and care partners. Although her platform is now national, Koenig Coste continues working at the all-important grassroots level. LEARNING TO SPEAK ALZHEIMER`S will transform the way we perceive and live with this disease, which afflicts four million Americans and more than twenty million of their family members and friends.