Speech and Swallowing: A Body Guide to Parkinson's Disease

About 75 percent of people with PD experience changes in speech and voice at some time during the course of the disease. These changes usually come on gradually and can vary from mild to severe. Problems communicating can lead to feelings of frustration, depression and withdrawal. Learning how PD affects communication and what you can do about it can help you better cope with problems that you might experience. Many of these problem areas can be improved with PD-specific exercise programs, devices that help communication and strategies/techniques that can help you and your conversation partners to communicate more effectively and efficiently.