My husband has been diagnosed with MCI. When he starts telling me things he just told me, two or more times, I worked out a system where I hold up fingers. If he's already told me once I hold up one finger, told me twice, two fingers, etc. The only reason I do this is so he doesn't waste his breath telling me something again and again. When he sees my finger or fingers up, he just stops his story. He's not embarrassed, he just responds, "oh" and stops talking (he doesn't feel bad, just carries on with what he was doing).