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My 81-year-old husband suffers from vascular dementia, with increasingly poor long- and short-term memory, some hallucinations, and often producing a garbled stream of meaningless words when he talks. He used to be an accomplished artist who drew very well. Recently I got him a drawing book, and now when I suggest he draw something, for example, our dog, instead of a drawing, he will write the words "Our Dog" on the piece of paper. When I say, can you draw the dog? he points to the words and says "I did draw the dog." Is this a typical feature of dementia -- he seems to have forgotten how to draw. Thanks for any insights!

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Yes, it can be a symptom of dementia. In fact one of the tests is to ask someone to draw a clock. Often they cannot.
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My mother, too, was an accomplished artist. Between macular degeneration and vascular dementia, she, too, lost her ability to draw. It was her greatest joy at one time. 😥
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I'm not sure he's forgotten how to draw, but maybe the command is being mixed up in his head. He still knows how to write words, but the request to draw is not being interpreted properly in his brain so that he can execute it from his mind to his hand.

Two years ago I brought a birthday card for my MIL in LTC to sign. She has mild dementia and moderate short-term memory loss. We were shocked to discover she could no longer sign her name, not even after I "drew" it for her, not even when I drew an "X" and asked her to copy that. Yet, she can still read perfectly.
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JoAnn29 Dec 2021
My Mom lost the ability to write too.
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Yes. His brain is dying little by little. When it hits the part of the brain that houses artistic ability, they lose the ability.
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