{"id":27103,"date":"2025-05-03T09:02:05","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27103"},"modified":"2025-05-03T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T09:26:13","slug":"honey-sweetie-dearie-there-are-perils-in-elderspeak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=27103","title":{"rendered":"Honey, Sweetie, Dearie: There Are Perils in \u2018Elderspeak\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new training program teaches aides to stop baby talk and address older people as adults.<\/p>\n

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A prime example of elderspeak: Cindy Smith was visiting with her father in his assisted living apartment in Roseville, Calif. An aide who was trying to induce him to do something \u2014 Ms. Smith no longer remembers exactly what \u2014 said, \u201cLet me help you, sweetheart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just gave her The Look \u2014 under his bushy eyebrows \u2014 and said, \u2018What, are we getting married?\u2019\u201d recalled Ms. Smith, who had a good laugh, she said. <\/p>\n

Her father was then 92, a retired county planner and a World War II veteran; macular degeneration had reduced the quality of his vision and he used a walker to get around, but he remained cognitively sharp.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t normally get too frosty with people,\u201d Ms. Smith said. \u201cBut he did have the sense that he was a grown up, and he wasn\u2019t always treated like one.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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People understand almost intuitively what \u201celderspeak\u201d means. \u201cIt\u2019s communication to older adults that sounds like baby talk,\u201d said Clarissa Shaw, a dementia care researcher at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and a coauthor of a recent article<\/a> that helps researchers document its use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt arises from an ageist assumption of frailty, incompetence and dependence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its elements include inappropriate endearments. \u201cElderspeak can be controlling, kind of bossy, so to soften that message there\u2019s \u2018honey,\u2019 \u2018dearie,\u2019 \u2018sweetie,\u2019\u201d said Kristine Williams, a nurse gerontologist at the University of Kansas School of Nursing and another coauthor.<\/p>\n

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A new training program teaches aides to stop baby talk and address older people as adults.A prime example of elderspeak: Cindy Smith was visiting with her father in his assisted living apartment in Roseville, Calif. An aide who was trying to induce him to do something \u2014 Ms. Smith no longer remembers exactly what \u2014 said, \u201cLet me help you, sweetheart.\u201d\u201cHe just gave her The Look \u2014 under his bushy eyebrows \u2014 and said, \u2018What, are we getting married?\u2019\u201d recalled Ms. Smith, who had a good laugh, she said. Her father was then 92, a retired county planner and a World War II veteran; macular degeneration had reduced the quality of his vision and he used a walker to get around, but he remained cognitively sharp.\u201cHe wouldn\u2019t normally get too frosty with people,\u201d Ms. Smith said. \u201cBut he did have the sense that he was a grown up, and he wasn\u2019t always treated like one.\u201dPeople understand almost intuitively what \u201celderspeak\u201d means. \u201cIt\u2019s communication to older adults that sounds like baby talk,\u201d said Clarissa Shaw, a dementia care researcher at the University of Iowa College of Nursing and a coauthor of a recent article that helps researchers document its use.\u201cIt arises from an ageist assumption of frailty, incompetence and dependence.\u201dIts elements include inappropriate endearments. \u201cElderspeak can be controlling, kind of bossy, so to soften that message there\u2019s \u2018honey,\u2019 \u2018dearie,\u2019 \u2018sweetie,\u2019\u201d said Kristine Williams, a nurse gerontologist at the University of Kansas School of Nursing and another coauthor.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27105,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27103"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27106,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27103\/revisions\/27106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}