Have you ever noticed how many people (including medical professionals) talk down to seniors, using a kind of baby talk? Sing-song voices and simple words and a cutesy tone, calling them ‘dear’ or ‘sweetie’? Sara Myers wrote about this recently on her insightful blog, “A Good Enough Daughter,” over at silverplanet.com. She wrote, “It’s called elderspeak—and it is more than annoying. It’s downright skin crawling….why would someone to talk to another person like that? Ageism is one reason.”
Part of our caregiver hiring process at Good Company involves screening out people who talk to seniors like they’re a different, less intelligent sub-class. And when we do in-home assessments, our team members talk directly and respectfully to the senior patient themselves, not to the adult children or relatives who are hiring us. But we continue to hear ‘elderspeak’ in the field all the time, when we’re taking seniors out to appointments and on errands, etc.
What’s behind this condescending, ultimately demeaning way to talking to the elderly? I agree with Sara Myers, who says it reflects how terrified most Americans are of getting old and dying. One way to deal with that fear is to treat elderly people as if they are very different from us, less capable and less competent. What’s your experience with ‘elderspeak’ and how do you handle it when the seniors you love are talked down to instead of treated as equals?