Re: Concentration and Distraction

["johnd@xxxxxxxxx" <johnd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alan Bonander left a message today about distraction and his problem with
short term recollection such as his wife calling to him, "Are you there?"
and his response, "What?"

I recall reading a posting to PARKINSN last fall where someone spoke of
the difficulty of catching the first couple of words spoken in a
sentence, making it very difficult to appear to comprehend others. It was
suggested then that the other person should begin their conversation with
words which are not critical to understanding the conversation, something
like, "Alan, I have a question to ask you." This might be received, "a
question to ask you," or "ask you." I thought the posting interesting.

My father, having PD-Plus (MSA striatonigral degeneration or Diffuse Lewy
Body Disease) is deeply perplexed at his inability to handle numbers,
whether adding a few digits or making sense of the concept of time. The
latter I best understood when he said he could see that it was 7:15, but
couldn't figure out whether that was before or after 8 o'clock. He is a
Mechanical Engineer, but can't really even participate in the Tax Return
preparation anymore.

Anyone have any comments/suggestions about improving his grasp of time?
He worries all day about being late to an appointment because he can't
figure out if he's early/late/on-time. My wife suggested getting some
workbooks that cover the concept and trying to learn about "Time" all
over again in some other part of the brain.

Thanks for any ideas.

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John DeGelleke          Palm Harbor, Florida, USA
Email: johnd@xxxxxxxxx      Voice:   813-934-3648
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