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Julie, since you are a speech specialist? let me share some experience. Brother is PD...has been since 94 (probably before that). Officially diagnosed PD in 98. Had all the beginning symptoms as you are familiar with in PD. I saw his speech gradually deteriorate to a whisper and then nothing. He can moan now...but no speech. His swallowing became a problem about 98-99. He would gorge his mouth with food but could not swallow unless he forced it. He got pneumonia March 2002 because he swallowed into his lungs. He had to go into a nursing home. Now the observation. Our speech therapist appeared to be very elementary by getting him to recognize symbols and point to them...he could not speak. The therapist did not attempt to do anything with his neck muscles nor his mouth muscles (movements) to help with speech (which probably would have helped with his swallowing). There was no effort to revalidate his muscles or to strengthen his neck muscles which "may" have helped with his speech (and his swallowing). He was taken off speech therapy after 3 weeks. I am not asking for an opinion nor an answer to this e-mail. But sometimes in your future you may want to look into that stage of PD and see if there are exercises to help with speech and swallowing. Again, no need to answer, but I see this as an area that needs to be researched. Larry Wilson ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn