Patients with Parkinson’s disease often have difficulty speaking. This is caused by their inability to adequately coordinate the muscles used during breathing, sound production, and swallowing, resulting in various problems such as weakening of voice volume (which becomes monotonous and fades as they speak), inability to pronounce words clearly (especially final syllables), and the appearance of hesitations and repetitions.
However, it is possible to overcome these difficulties with the help of friends and family. Here are some suggestions recommended by the Experts of the Italian Parkinson’s Associations and the Grigioni Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease.
Here are 6 tips on how to help people affected by Parkinson’s with language disorders:
- Eye Contact: While the patient speaks, give them your full attention, sit facing them so you can better observe lip movements to facilitate understanding.
- Patience: If the patient has difficulties or hesitates while speaking, do not interrupt them; when they speak, give them all the time they need.
- Encouragement: Encourage them to speak with a louder voice, as if you were in another room, and to use simpler language, composed of short, almost telegraphic sentences. If they show any difficulty, ask them to reformulate the sentence: choosing different words could make the message more understandable. You can also ask them to spell out the sentence word by word, repeating it after them.
- Let Them Know You Understand: When a Parkinson’s patient speaks, nod or say “yes” to let them know you understand what they are saying. Similarly, if what they are saying is not clear to you, let them know; you can help by repeating what you understood and asking them to continue from there.
- Use Writing as Language Aid: If the patient has no problems with writing, you can ask them to use pen and paper to aid communication. If, however, the patient’s handwriting has become difficult to read due to Parkinson’s, alternative methods can be used, such as using a tablet.
- Consider Consulting a Professional: To further assist the patient, it is advisable to plan a targeted and personalized treatment with the help of a professional speech therapist, who can better evaluate the patient’s difficulties.
