David Lipson, who is 73 years old, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2004 — 21 years ago. He shares how speech challenges have shaped the way he approaches his care.
Transcript
Wish I had done more with my speech. I took a course — LSVT, resonant voice training. I didn’t do the homework. I didn’t stick with it.
Like anything else, you got to stick with it. So my speech is not where it should be. That’s not great, because communication is very important.
We’re in the age category where a lot of people become hard of hearing. And people with Parkinson’s have soft voices, so that makes it hard to communicate. And the other thing is, you can often get the words out by yelling and screaming, but that doesn’t go over very well. That’s no good. Nobody likes to be yelled at.
It’s important to get the voice right. But what you can do is, you can practice by yourself. And if you practice, you achieve a lot.
