Phelps offers two intensive exercise programs that have been shown to slow down the effects that Parkinson’s disease has on voice and mobility and to improve patients’ quality of life.
The first, Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT LOUD), for voice disorders related to Parkinson’s, is offered in the Speech and Hearing Center at Phelps by speech therapists who are certified in LSVT LOUD. The focus of this program is to increase vocal loudness, but it may also result in slowing down a patient’s rate of speech and improving his or her overall speech clarity. One of the reasons the program has such a high rate of success is that patients are able to immediately apply what they have learned during therapy to their conversational speech.
Physical therapists demonstrate some of the LSVT BIG movement exercises. - Advertisement -
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The second, called LSVT BIG, is provided in Phelps’ spacious outpatient physical therapy department, where therapists certified in LSVT BIG train patients with Parkinson’s to use bigger movements when performing activities of daily living. The exercises increase the amplitude or “bigness” of limb and body movement and improve trunk rotation, gait and balance. Patients learn strategies to help them more easily get in and out of bed, tie their shoes, button and unbutton their clothing and go up and down stairs.
Both of these programs consist of 16 individual one-hour sessions, four days a week over a four-week period and include exercises for patients to do at home.
For more information about LSVT BIG, call 914-366-3700.​
For information about LSVT LOUD, call 914-366-3010.