Speech Therapy

I was at the Parkinson's Unity Walk (http://www.unitywalk.org/) with my parents back in April when a woman suddenly stopped my parents and began talking to them about Speech issues and Parkinson's. She was telling them about a type of speech therapy directed especially for Parkinson's. My Mom does not experience any major issues with her voice, but I found listening to this woman fascinating. I had no idea that someone had developed a special speech therapy program geared largely towards Parkinson's. The name of the therapy is the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) and the website is http://www.lsvt.org/.

The woman asked my Mom about her voice and she told her that she didn't have any problems. The woman asked what she had done for a profession and my Mom told her she was a teacher. The woman said, "And that's why you don't have problems. " It seems that teachers and actors often don't experience voice problems because they are used to projecting their voices.

I thought this was fascinating and could see how a treatment could be developed if certain professions didn't experience these issues. Obviously figuring out why would help others.

My family does not personally deal with voice difficulties (at least not yet), but I have talked to other families whose loved ones have lost their voices completely. I can't imagine how trapped someone must feel in their own bodies if they have no voice and especially if they have a tremor that limits their writing abilities.

Here again is the link to this special speech therapy http://www.lsvt.org/ and also a link to another informational site I found while researching this issue. http://www.fortunecity.com/meltingpot/farley/817/aspeech.html

Best of luck and keep on talking!