Encourage them to seek speech therapy early on so that they can remain active at working, socializing, and enjoying life. Fox recommends treatment as soon as problems develop, because once speech impairment starts discouraging someone from conversing, the inactivity may accelerate the speech deterioration.

You can give important positive feedback to Parkinson's patients the about how much clearer their voice sounds after receiving treatment. These tips can also help when chatting with them:

• Cut background noise. Turn off the TV, close the windows, and choose quiet restaurants when eating out.
• Talk face-to-face. Reading their lips will help.
• Try to be patient. Let them answer questions and finish sentences themselves. Cognitive changes in Parkinson's disease can slow thinking processes and hinder recall of the words they want to say.
• Keep encouraging them to speak. Repeat the parts of a sentence that you understood, then ask them to say the full sentence again more slowly. Have them spell words you didn't catch.