Parkinson’s Home Therapy

Aug 18

Strengthening your voice where it counts!

My Voice Speech Therapy Parkinson's Disease Blog

My Voice Speech Therapy, LLC

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Speech Therapy

Voice treatment for those with Parkinson’s Disease can be very effective and the results can be heard quickly in most cases. Communication is a powerful tool and by strengthening your voice, you can regain your connection to others. Mumbled voices and quiet speech require a lot of effort to overcome. It isn’t your fault, it is a hallmark of your Parkinson’s. Powering through and speaking louder and longer can be a short-term fix, but it also can lead to incorrectly using and then losing your voice.

Stop having to repeat yourself,
say it perfectly loud the first time.

The Dopamine Effect

Parkinson’s Disease impacts your feedback loop and creates a false sense of using the required effort when walking, moving, and speaking. You’ll notice this when your loved one points out your shuffling feet and when you go to write on the envelope, and, also, when the world appears to have developed a hearing loss. Your body thinks that calling across that quiet room requires a certain level of power, however, if you recorded yourself, you would hear that it isn’t loud enough and that sound hardly even reaches your microphone, let alone your family member. Again, this is not your fault. This is the impact of the impaired Dopamine in Parkinson’s Disease.

Working on strengthening and maintaining your voice should be completed with a trained motor speech therapist who is specialized in Parkinson’s Disease. These Speech Language Pathologists can guide you through learning how loud (or quiet) you really are throughout the day. With them, you can relearn how to speak effectively and strengthen the muscles of communication. With support, be confident that your voice will be loud enough every time you speak.

Location Matters

The best way to learn something is in the location that you use it. You wouldn’t learn how to use a machine in the boardroom - it would be hands-on in the field! Home based voice therapy is the best for you. You can work on finding the correct loudness in your own living room so you can clearly ask, from across the room, what they would like for dinner without having to repeat yourself. Our services at My Voice Speech Therapy are offered virtually throughout Michigan and in-person at your doorstep in the Kalamazoo Area. Both options give you real-life scenarios to address your loudness. Besides, who wants to spend time commuting to a boring office building and wait in a waiting room when your therapist can come to you?