The inability to communicate effectively due to poor voice quality (dysphonia) and reduced intelligibility (dysarthria) are common, devastating symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD). Dysphonic patients do not know when they are speaking inaudibly and require reminders to speak loudly and clearly enough to be understood. It can have a profound impact on patients by putting their physical safety at risk, creating social isolation, and preventing them from relating their daily living needs.

The current standard of care for patients with PD-related dysphonia is intensive behavioral voice therapy consisting of four sessions per week over four weeks, with additional home practice between sessions. This intervention puts the burden of treatment directly on the patient to recall and implement the therapeutic skills in typical, daily conversations and on the caregiver to enforce the treatment plan. There is a high incidence of therapeutic failure due to financial and scheduling burdens as well as patients’ inability to translate learned skills to real-life communication situations.