@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. ”