People with Alzheimer's disease (AD) have discourse deficits which demand evaluation and intervention. For this reason, it is important to understand the different demands of different discourse tasks. This article reviews the main studies on the discourse of people with Alzheimer's disease, describing the performance of such population in discourse tasks which are classified according to their input style. Studies which used neutral input, naturalistic conversations, directive and facilitative input, and tasks which used visual stimuli to elicit narrative and descriptive discourse were described. Differences between discourse tasks focusing on preserved and affected discourse abilities in people with Alzheimer's disease were discussed. Finally, research on discourse tasks for those with Alzheimer's disease and their application in the evaluation and intervention of communication in AD is considered.
Alzheimer's disease; Communication; Discourse tasks; Input styles