Communicating with people with speech impairments

Some older people are not easy to understand. They may have some form of speech impediment. This could be due to a stroke or a miriad of other reasons. Make sure you:

Make eye contact with the listener/ speaker
Use usual lip movement, tone and volume
Use non-patronising language and actions
Allow time for the communication
Pleasantly ask for a word to be spelled or a phrase repeated
Feed back to the enquirer what you think is being said
Use written communication.