Sentence repetition is part of the assessment tasks used to better characterise aphasic patients’ oral production. Moreover, impaired sentence and phrase repetition is a core feature of the logopenic variant of primary progressive aphasia. The aim of this study is to present the TEFREP (TEst Français de RÉpétition de Phrases), a French sentence repetition task that manipulates psycholinguistic variables known to affect the performance of aphasic patients. The final version of the TEFREP consists of 24 sentences in which length, semantic reversibility and type of sentence have been manipulated. The task shows good psychometric properties (validity and reliability). Norms according to age and education level have been developed from a sample of 80 healthy adults and older adults. In conclusion, the TEFREP fulfills the current need for a reliable assessment tool of sentence repetition in Canadian French-speaking populations and contributes to the differential diagnosis of language impairment.

We describe a case of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) in a 62 year old right handed Irish woman who had progressive speech and language difficulty over a period of six years. She continued to work for a remarkable length of time and lived independently managing all her activities of daily living. The case posed a diagnostic challenge because initial presentation was suggestive of a conversion disorder. She also displayed signs and symptoms which overlapped with a fronto-temporal dementia and possibly early Alzheimer's disease. In our discussion, we explore the possible reasons for this overlap and the implication for psychiatrists. The need for adequate and sensitive investigations and a multi-disciplinary approach cannot be overemphasised as PPA cases are easily missed depending on the stage at which the patient presents.