MY husband is hard of hearing but my daug... - Cure Parkinson's
MY husband is hard of hearing but my daughter now agrees. They say I havee started to talk much softer. Any one else doing this
I too thought people were crazythere was nothing wrong with m y voice... I have to repeat everything I say at least once, to everybody inciuding my neuroogist. I guess there's speach therapy to help it.
Yes sorry to say another hurdle I am afraid, most of the people I know with PD including my husband, have had changes in their voice, much softer as you have described, my husband and others have been to speech threapy and it can help as long as you keep up with the excercises. take care
This is a well known but often denied symptom of Parkinson's. It is one of the reasons pwP feel socially isolated because people tend to be excluded from conversations because the answers can't be heard. It goes with the Parkinson's 'miserable face' and causes people to lose their confidence in social situations.
Look at this clip to see what speech therapy can do. youtube.com/watch?v=gNIdxYj...
And here is an expert explaining what happens in Parkinson's
youtube.com/watch?v=VLWkOqt...
With Parkinson's you do not get the usual feedback to say when your voice is quiet. You make what feels like the same effort but it dosn't result in the same volume.
My husband benefited no end from the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment. It must be good because in the UK it is even recommended by the NICE guidelines and can be accessed through the Parkinson's nurse or your GP.
Go for it!
Sue
Yes the volume of speech can become quieter and also slurry . I also have yto keep reminding my husband to turn the sound down or off when he asks me a question because the hearing can change as well / UNFORTUNATELEY HE DOESNT USUALLY REMEMBER and then he blames me .lol
Soft speech was one of the first symptoms my neurologist noticed.
I did the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment. It made me aware that I need to "yell" to be heard as a normal voice.
Have told my family that I am not yelling at them, just trying to talk loud enough to be heard. 
It also made me realize that I needed to work on my swallowing, my "swallowing muscles" on my right side were beginning to loose whatever made them work. My face kind of looked lopsided, if you looked closely.
As much as it humbles to say this, if like me, my voice always seemed fine when it rattled in my head as I prepare myself to speak, then I saw a taping and realized I don't speak like used to, voice theraphy could help, hubby is always having me repeat and his hard of hearing, Or carefully pratice trying to talk louder, never talk to him when there are fans, loud TV's or ac running. It compounds the problem. Good luck, Do you sing? runs scales DO RAE MI getting your syllables back. We do slurry our words with out realizing, of coarse all my ideas are things I have been suggested for me to do. You just need to find the time to do them. KADIE p.s you can only do what you can do, remind him if we could write he could have handwritting notes posted everywhere LOL then then like my husband he can't read what I wrote LOL
I had the soft voice plus tremors in my voice. Made it harder and harder for people to understand me. I'd order in a resturant and have to repeat myself three times. Currently in the LSVT program and everyone can hear the difference. So grateful for the program and my wonderful therapist Amy who is so knowledgable about PD. She said I will continue after I finish the program for a while. It HAS helped.
I guess my voice has started to get softer, my wife is canstantly asking me to repeat . Sometimes I slur a bit too. Trying to talk louder doesn't work all that well either, I seem to be developing a saliva problem, so the louder I talk the wetter it gets. It just keeps getting funner and funner............
My father sufers from Parkinsons and he is very quietly spoken and my is hard of hearing,
My husband is the same I know he's a bit deaf because he always turns the tele off or washing machine etc if I'm talking to him.it's like he can't listen to two things at once.Isn't this the first sign of deafness. Also he talks loud on the phone.Isn't this also a sign of someone going deaf? He just won't have it!
He says it's because I talk softer but I purposely talk loader when I speak to him.
One PDer was so frustrated by her spouse / caregivers constant requests that she repeat what she just said, she asked him several times to consider having his hearing evaluated. He balked, saying that his hearing was fine. She made an appointment with a hearing specialist, and told her spouse at the last minute. When they walked into the doctor’s office and were asked what his problem was, he answered “My wife mumbles”.
Stolen from: notesfrommoversandshakerswi...
Hi
my voice is much quieter more garbled speech / and it is difficult to make myself understood ( ii have PSP a rarer type of parkinsons)
Singing is great 4 slowing down and doing scales as mentioned b4
Lol Jill
A soft voice was one of the first things I noticed about myself before I was diagnosed with PD. I'm a psychotherapist, and my clients kept asking me to repeat what I said. I also had trouble protecting my thoughts through my voice, it felt just as easy to be quiet, and my affect was so flat. One of the first things I noticed after taking Azilect was that some of this remediated and I talked louder, and with more modulation in my voice. I would like to take the Loud training sometime, and I imagine speech therapy is in my future!
The LOUD program is amazing. Just finished my 4x a week for 3 weeks. AMAZED by the difference. They have me coming 3x a week starting this week so we can work on some other problem areas but I HIGHLY recommend it!
Thanks to all for the great advice, so wonderful to have all your support. God Bless you all. I AM TRYING TO TALK L o u d e r!
Hi there,
I have yearly appointments with an NHS speech therapist where the volume and range of my voice is measured and my swallowing is checked. My therapist recommends singing (just around the house will do, as long as it is loud). I was quite surprised at just how much effort it actually takes to speak at an acceptable volume and now try to remember to speak that little bit louder.
I also recently took part in a trial of an iphone app which was aimed at helping people with PD to speak louder. You had to read out what was on the screen and the phone measured your volume and gave you a goal for the next lot of text and a bar on the screen showing your volume and the target volume. I found this REALLY helpful as you are in control of when and where you do this exercise and will be keeping an eye out for when it is released. Incidentally, I had my appointment with the speech therapist the week after I did the trial and my volume was better than when measured last year!
I am in the same situation. I have realized my speech can go off. In now sing in a choir, I'm not brilliant but my vocal chords are getting better.
I teach in a secondary school. A couple of students and parents complained to the school that I was too hard to hear. I was quite miffed by the lack of support from my head of faculty but that's another story.
I now have a mic attached to my tie linked wirelessly to a set of speakers bought off Amazon for £20. This proved successful so the school has agreed to buy a better set with its own speakers.
It has helped me to be heard without straining my voice.
Mike
I have trouble just talking on certain days i keep on telling family it HURTS to talk best way to describe it no therapy where i live
I drive 40 minutes each way 4x a week for the therapy and I'm so glad I'm doing it. It has definately helped. Just keep working on it 2x a day if there's no therapy near you. It'll come natural after a while! Good luck
What?
I truly know how frustrating it is to be asked to repeat every single thing - there just doesn't seem to be enough "oomph" to get the voice loud enough to be heard ...
I love the advice: "think loud".
Yes. My voice is getting softer and my husband is losing his hearing. SO it makes for interesing conversation at our house.My neurologist told me to sing.too. I could lose a lot of firends that way.
