I was going through this article ,

I would like to know how can i handle this .
i think my dad have some speech problem.

www.caring.com/articles/parkinsons-speech-impairment

Is it possible some that some with Parkinson's Disease can get bad speech problem

thanks

Hi Sharron,

Yes, a symptom of Parkinson's Disease can be speech problems. This usually occurs because of weakness of speech muscles and/or weak breath control. This can lead to slurred speech and/or speech that is low in volume.

There are many things you can do to improve this, and visitng a speech and language therapist would be appropriate.

There are a number of simple compensatory startegies you can use:

- Take a deep breath before speaking
- Use short sentences and try not to run out of breath
mid-sentence
- Look at the person when you are talking to them
- Try and communicate in a quiet environment
- Slow your speech a little

If speech really starts to deteriorate, try using an alphabet chart to spell words, or to point to the first letter of each word as you say it (this helps cue in the listener).

There are also communication machines that have spoken output.

This is quite a big topic and we will eventually have some more information relating to Parkinson's and communication on the icommunicate website.

I hope that has given a few pointers to think about. Let me know if you have any more specific questions relating to this subjects.

Regards

Lauren - icommunicate