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Have you explored speech therapy?
I recently had the chance to chat with a speech therapist who was intimately connected with the Parkinson’s community. She explained that speech and swallowing are connected, and oftentimes if you struggle with one, you’ll struggle with the other. But she emphasized that there are things we can do to strengthen the muscles associated with both activities.
Have you explored speech therapy? If so, tell us about it. What have you learned? Has it helped you manage Parkinson’s symptoms?
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5 Replies
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I loved speech therapy. However, you need to keep up on it. My family and friends will remind me to speak up. I go to a Parkinson’s exercise class twice a week for 90 minutes each, and we have to count out loud. It helps our voice but also our cognition–counting by 3s or 4s. We also do boxing and have to repeat the moves: 2 cross, 2 upper cuts. I recommend it to everyone. The more we work, the better we are.
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Yes my husband is having speech therapy. It has made a real difference. Of course it is ongoing. but worth it. He does the exercises. He has a purpose. We have a son living overseas, we zoom.
He wouldn’t chat before, because he new my son couldn’t hear him. Our son is impressed.
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Wow, how cool to hear that it’s not only helping but also encouraging him to engage with your son over zoom more. Does he participate in a specific program?
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I am in the 3rd week of the Loud program via telehealth. Initially I thought that commiting to 4x/weekly for 4 weeks was too much, but I am enjoying it and more importantly, it is making a big difference in my speech volume and clarity. Everyone says my speech is “back to normal.”
I highly recommend it to those whose voices are dimmed by PFD
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I know one of my dad’s hesitations is that he doesn’t want to have to go to a physical location to do speech therapy. Have you found the virtual setup to be relatively easy and intuitive?
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