Treating Parkinsonian speech: development of a feedback rating scale using a case study

The speech of people with Parkinson's disease is often unintelligible because the speaker has limited volume and imprecisely articulated speech. The Lee Silverman Voice Treatment addresses volume by requiring a patient to exert extreme effort to adduct the vocal folds and increase volume. Little attention, however, is paid to articulation. Such patients often have perceptual difficulties which prevent them from monitoring their own volume and speech. A case study presents a method for improving volume and articulation of speech of a patient with Parkinson's disease by focusing on perceptual aspects of speech.