Understanding that there is an underlying cause to someone who starts to become distressed or express themselves in different ways then what you might have experienced of the person before. Because communication pathways can be inhibited by dementia a person will often express themselves non verbally to attempt to express and communicate something with those around them. There are a multitude of possible underlying causes for these expressions. They may be physical, psychological and or emotional. It’s important to not just see these expressions as a symptom of dementia but rather caused by an experience of life with dementia, the experience of some of the impacts of the disease rather than the disease itself. Although there are some functional changes that will can be caused by dementia such as repetitiveness and confusion as examples not all changes in a person’s expressions are symptoms of the disease.