I am currently working with a patient with Parkinson’s disease; the trouble is he runs out of breath very quickly and it is causing gret difficulty in my sessions, have you come across any useful respiratory techniques??

Hi Jill,

I must admit I am no expert in this area and would welcome feedback from any other professionals out there. I am not sure how effective breathing exercises are in the long term to help clients with Parkinsons improve their speech.

I think they are useful in giving clients an awareness of their breathing and breath control and it is probably also useful for them to be aware about the importance of breathing from the diaphragm and being relaxed when speaking. Awareness of volume may also be worth focussing on.

It would also be useful to teach the client to take a deep breath prior to delivery and then just use short sentences.

Along with this you could use some sort of low-tech assistive communication device. An alphabet chart can be useful. If the client cannot be understood, he can point to the first letter of the word on the alphabet chart this can cue in the listener.

I hope this is some help, as I said, I would welcome input from other therapists who are more knowledgable in this area.

Regards Johan