What is Parkinson’s Disease?
According to ASHA, Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition that can impact various aspects of daily life, including communication and safe eating. Speech therapists play an essential role in helping individuals with Parkinson’s enhance their communication abilities, adapt to cognitive changes, assist with safe eating, and improve their overall quality of life. Let’s explore how speech therapy supports Parkinson’s patients and the specific ways it can make a difference.
The Role of Speech Therapy for Parkinson’s Patients
For individuals with Parkinson’s, communication challenges can interfere with their ability to connect with others. Speech therapy addresses these concerns by focusing on:
- Providing tools and techniques to enhance communication
- Projecting voice with intention
- Strengthening the muscles involved in speech
- Supporting safe swallowing
- Maintaining cognition
By targeting these areas, speech therapy empowers patients to remain active participants in their personal and social lives.
How Speech Therapy Can Assist
- Providing tools and techniques to enhance communication. First complete a speech and language evaluation to determine the individual’s current communicative status. Based on the evaluation, speech therapy may determine if the patient can benefit from assistive devices such as voice amplifiers, communication boards, nonverbal cues to aid effective interaction, teaching strategies to verbalize, etc. Speech Therapy introduces and integrates these tools into daily life, making them natural extensions of communication.
- Projecting voice with intention. Parkinson’s patients often face difficulties with speaking and energy management during conversations due to depleted dopamine. Speech therapists can offer specific strategies catered to the individual to project voice with intention. Consistent home practice is recommended.
- Strengthening the muscles involved in speech. Parkinson’s patients often have weakened muscles utilized for speech, making it harder to speak clearly and consistently. Speech therapy introduces exercises designed to improve breathing techniques, pitch variation, as well as boost vocal clarity and volume.
- Supporting safe swallowing. Speech therapists will assess the patient’s swallowing function, identify swallowing difficulties, and then develop personalized strategies to improve swallowing safety and efficiency. These strategies include exercises, dietary modifications, and techniques like head positioning to minimize the risk of aspiration and choking.
- Maintaining cognition. Recommended for all adults during the aging process. Memory retaining strategies, word retrieval, word association, etc. are addressed. It is important that cognitive activities are said out loud, including reading.
Beyond improving communication, speech therapy helps individuals with Parkinson’s regain a sense of control and independence. By addressing the unique challenges posed by the disease, speech therapists support patients in achieving meaningful and fulfilling lives. If you or someone you love is living with Parkinson’s disease, consider consulting a speech therapist. The right interventions can make a world of difference in preserving communication and fostering connections.
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-EMILY SMITH, Illinois State University, Senior Research and Marketing Intern
-NICOLE BUTLER, M.S., CCC-SLP/L (ASHA Certified and licensed Speech-Language Pathologist, Founder and Executive Director of Speech Within Reach.)
SPEECH WITHIN REACH provides in person and virtual telehealth speech therapy for children and adults. We are happy to support your speech therapy needs. Please feel free to reach out to us.