hello everyone I'm Cynthia Fox and I'll be joined in this movement break with my colleague Angela helper as we know nearly 90% of people with Parkinson disease have changes in their voice and speech that can make communication more difficult and challenging but what can be frustrating is the person with Parkinson disease doesn't feel like their voice has changed but yet those around them often say what did you say I can't hear you what we're going to do to today is just a sample of the lsvt loud exercises to get you revved up and make that voice come alive the first exercise that we will do are the long a these really help improve your breath and voice support together and establish a good quality loudness that we then train into speech so Angela is going to lead you through this exercise hi my name is Angela and I'm going to take you through some of these exercises let's get ready to practice the first exercise we're going to do are the long Oz I'm going to be counting it down for 15 seconds but I only want you to hold it as long as you can with loudness and quality so if you have to stop and take a little breath that's totally fine all right here we go let's get ready to practice I'm going to have you do what I do ah now you're going to do that and hold it out here we go one two three a keep it going keep it going keep it loud you can do it almost there and stop awesome so you should feel that effort as you do that a here here we go number two one two 3 keep going feel the effort keep it loud keep it loud keep it loud you're almost there all right fantastic okay you should be feeling revved up as you do this next awe I want you to think about the effort that's the effort you want to use all the time when you talk here we go for number three 1 2 3 ah good loudness keep it going keep it there good loudness feel the effort almost [Music] there and stop awesome okay let's stop and get get a little sip of water so that you're keeping good hydration okay here we go for the next one one two three ah keep it loud good loudness keep going come on you can do it dig deep dig deep almost there and stop fantastic okay this last one really be feeling that effort that's the effort we want you to use all the time when you talk here we go you got it with gusto one two three a keep going keep it there almost there good loudness feel the effort and stop woo good work the next exercise that we will do are the high a and the low o these work to help improve your intonation by taking that good a voice you just practice and going up high in pitch and low in Pitch so once again Angela will take you through this exercise I'll do one first so you can see what we're going to do it's going to sound like this ah I'm only going to have you hold these for about 5 Seconds all right here we go one 2 3 awesome so you should have felt just as loud here as you did when you start if you didn't let's pump up that loudness here we go one 2 3 good if this is a little too high you can try this next one do what I do here we go one 2 3 [Music] so do what works for you to get that good stretch maybe you can go even higher on this one let's try here we go one 2 [Music] 3 great now that you've done those High a we're going to go low what goes up must come down so we're going to start with that same good a voice and go low start loud to be loud I'll do one first for you it's going to sound like [Music] this so you're going to use that same good a voice stretch as low as you can keeping it loud here we go one two 3 ah [Music] a here we go for the next one a keep going keep it loud keep it loud you got it fantastic all right here we go for the next one start loud to be loud one 2 3 a keep it there you got it I want to hear that loudness fantastic all right we have a couple more you're doing great you should feel like your voice is really warmed up one 2 3 keep it there keep it loud that's it great on this last one feel that effort you're using that's the effort and loudness you want to use when you talk here we go 1 2 3 a keep it there yep that's it nice and loud you got it fantastic the third exercise that we'll do are the functional phrases if you were in treatment your therapist would have you come up with phrases that are very specific and individual to you but for this exercise we'll provide some phrases to you so I'll turn it back over to Angela again now you're going to take that wonderful a voice you just practiced and we're going to put it into speech so feel that same effort and loudness you will see some phrases appear on the screen as each phrase appears I want you to read it with that same effort and loudness this is the voice that will help you to be heard and understood so it's going to sound like this good morning how are you here we go that's great I love the voice Think Loud good awesome I loved the voice that I heard when you did that if you haven't had lsvt loud before we would encourage you to seek out a therapist and get treatment you have important things to say you need to be heard and understood we hope you've enjoyed this movement break and your voice feels warmed up and Alive we encourage you to greet someone today either in person or perhaps on the phone and say hello with this good loudness and see how they respond even if it feels just a little too loud to you if you'd like to learn more about speech and voice changes with Parkinson's more about lsvt loud treatment or to find an lsvt loud certified clinician near you please feel free to visit our website