Meet Mary:
I'm Mary Spremulli, MA,CCC-SLP, a medical speech pathologist and licensed nurse, with over 25 years of health care experience. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to lecture throughout the United States and in Puerto Rico, and currently provide educational seminars with Cross Country Education. I am also president of Voice Aerobics, LLC, a speech-language pathology private practice located in SW Florida.
An Ohio native, and graduate of Cleveland State University, I relocated to Florida in 1989. Here, through my out-patient practice, I began to develop an interest in working with individuals with changes in their voice, speech or swallowing as a result of Parkinson’s, stroke, and other neurological disorders.
Voice Aerobics™ came about originally as an "after therapy" program for individuals who completed a formal treatment program. The weekly class, however, began to attract a variety of individuals, who liked the idea of combining vocal function exercises with a general workout. The DVD provides individuals with an opportunity to work-out on their own, in their own home, and perhaps provide them with an opportunity to maintain improvements they have already achieved through formal therapy programs.
I have learned, that as a therapist, the most I can offer you, the patients is : knowledge about your illness or disease, a meaningful and relevant treatment program, and tools that allow you to continue to practice on your own. I hope you find this DVD useful and articles on this site meaningful as you progress on your own journey.
Why Does Parkinson’s Disease Cause Changes In Voice?
Everyone with Parkinson’s Disease may have different symptoms, but, most will include stiffness and tremor. Voice and swallowing problems are frequently another symptom of this disease, sometimes occurring early, and sometimes later as the disease progresses.
Speech and voice symptoms occurring with Parkinson’s Disease are usually classified as a hypo kinetic dysarthria (hypo-slow, kinetic-referring to muscle movement, and dys-difficult, arthria-having to do with speech). The actual speech and voice of the person, is characterized as: low in volume, rate of speech which is too rushed or fast, low pitched, and monotone (boooooring!) Many people with Parkinson’s Disease complain that other people are always asking them to repeat, even though they think they’re talking just fine. Loss of facial expression is also associated with PD. The changes in voice and swallowing can be insidious (sneaky), and occur gradually over time. Consequently, the person who has the problem may not even realize how poor their voice has become, until their doctor is referring them for speech therapy.
