We studied language information processing abilities in subjects with Alzheimer's disease (AD) who were bilingual (French and dialectical Arabic). The results show a disruption of certain semantic aspects of their mother tongue (L1); a process based on the lexical implications of terms and continuity. On the other hand, grammatical levels appeared to be relatively unaffected in oral speech in L1 but were disturbed in the second language (L2). We consequently adapted a cognitive-language stimulation protocol for bilingual patients (PSCLAB) to respond to these deficits. The effectiveness of the PSCLAB in terms of rehabilitation was assessed in 30 such patients through discourse analysis carried out before and after initiating the protocol. The results show that cognitive/language training using the PSCLAB appears to improve language behaviour of bilingual patients with AD, although this should be confirmed through larger controlled studies.
Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; bilingualism; effectiveness of the PSCLAB; rehabilitation of language production processing.