My husband only Whispers: What can be done?

Hi,
Sorry everyone is having these experiences with their loved ones’ behavior and communication changes, especially whispering. You’ve all shared many possible factors, including changes in control over facial muscles, weakness, hearing impairment and or behavioral “selective hearing, “ problems with word retrieval or speech, and honestly the phenomenon we know as “showtiming,” or trying harder for other family and visitors or at doctors visits.

I’d like to add another perspective as someone living through this personally with my spouse, who has Vascular Parkinsonism after 7 strokes - and my experience as a licensed behavioral health clinician. Whispering very frequently also increases with episodic hallucinations, and different levels of paranoia that we see with Dementia and stroke patients. They will frequently whisper to their trusted family member in person or on the phone, especially if they are in a healthcare facility. The paranoia may be strictly from the changes to the brain, but can also come with medication changes or time of day or environment. Hope this perspective helps.

https://www.dementiacarecentral.com/aboutdementia/facts/stages/
Good examples of stages in different evaluation instruments. It helps in planning.

My husband, now in stage 6/7 has been whispering to everyone for a couple of years. He hasn’t had any strokes and no obvious hullucinations. He was diagnosed with FTD and Alzheimer’s about 3 years ago but shows none of the typical FTD symptoms. If I tell him to speak out loud he can sometimes do a few words with great effort. Or an occasional spoken word will sometimes come out. Numerous scans have not found an answer to the whispering. And he usually whispers very little.

@immaggiemae there are many variants of FTD, with earlier onset, and it sounds like he does not have the behavioral variant, but aphasia. This must be so frustrating. You mention he doesn’t have typical FTD symptoms so do you think they have the right diagnosis. With mixed type dementia, the primary indicator of Alzheimer’s would be memory deficits in the early phases progressing. What does his neurologist say?

“ The nonfluent variant of primary progressive aphasia (nfvPPA) is characterized by difficulty producing speech, including challenges with grammatical structure and speech sound production. This form of PPA often manifests as slow, effortful speech with errors in word order and grammatical structure, even though the person may still understand individual words.

Whispering aphasia, as a specific symptom, is not a defined variant of PPA but can be a manifestation of nfvPPA or other forms of language impairment, where the person might have difficulty producing louder speech.

Elaboration:
nfvPPA:
This variant of PPA, also known as progressive nonfluent aphasia (PNFA) or PPA-G, is characterized by difficulty finding the right words and putting them together in a grammatically correct way. The ability to form speech sounds may also be affected, leading to apraxia of speech (AOS), where the person struggles to physically produce the sounds of speech.

Whispering aphasia:
While not a distinct variant of PPA, whispering or difficulty producing loud speech can be a symptom of nfvPPA or other language disorders. This can be due to difficulties with motor speech control or other neurological issues. ”

@cgeenhughes4, is your husband still seeing a neurologist?

My husband is whispering and mumbling. I find it frustrating because I have to ask him to repeat himself. Then I feel horrible because I don’t really know what to do. But know that this can be part of dementia makes it understandable. Thanks.

I know this last weekend we went to see my mom, most of the time, that's all she did was whisper. I would have to ask her what she said numerous times. Some days are better than other days when it comes to hearing her talk. I have noticed the more she has progressed with her dementia the more she has been whispering.

@dhamby2862, I just wanted to make sure you were welcomed to the group. Welcome. 🙂

Has your husband been diagnosed with dementia or are the signs just starting to show?

My husband whispers, I would bug him to speak up so I could hear. It took me awhile to realize he wasn’t saying anything that needed to be attended to- like a request for a drink or snack, to ask a question or join a conversation. It was really just mumbling. Pestering him only made me feel frustrated.
He does much better with hand gestures, accompanied by speech. When he starts the whispering, I give him two-handed thumbs up, with a big smile, and then the “I love you” gesture, dancing my hands around. He laughs.
I think one of the few saving graces of dementia is that the person usually recognizes you as someone “making him safe”, taking care of him, who will take care of what needs to be done for him, a protector in an increasingly mystifying and perhaps scary world. To me, the thumbs up is universally recognized, as the symbol for “It’s okay, you got this, I’m with you”, we all need some of that.

@bayviewgal I cannot watch any tv with my wife now- she doesn’t understand and gets frustrated quickly.