Table 4 Signs and symptoms to discuss during history taking and to help signalling cognitive impairment [21]

Memory impairment

 • Repeating questions or conversations

 • Hesitations, inconsistencies, omissions or confabulations

 • Head turning sign (to verify answers with a caregiver)

 • Misplacing personal belongings

 • Forgetting events or appointments

 • Getting lost on a familiar route

Aphasia

 • Difficulty thinking of common words while speaking or using incorrect words

 • No fluent production of words

Apraxia

 • Difficulties in performing or imitating simple tasks (such as combing hair or brushing teeth) with intact comprehension, motor skills and perception

Agnosia

 • Impaired ability to recognise faces or common objects or to find objects in direct view despite good acuity (visual agnosia)

 • Impaired ability to recognise or identify objects by touch alone (tactile agnosia)

Disturbance in executive functioning

 • Not correcting mistakes

 • Difficulty learning how to use a new gadget or machine around the house

 • Inability to manage finances

 • Loss of abstract thinking, logical reasoning and/or visuoconstruction (e.g. drawing a clock)

 • Lack of insight in own functioning

 • Loss of initiative, increased impulsivity or uninhibited behaviour