LSVT Big® and LSVT Loud® Therapy

If you have Parkinson’s disease, you may experience changes in the way you walk or move. Your gait may become slower with smaller steps and shuffled feet. It may be difficult to transfer from a sitting to standing position or challenging to button your shirt.

At Grand View Health, our Physical Therapy Department helps people with Parkinson’s manage their movement challenges. We offer the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) BIG® therapy, an evidence-based approach.

Named for a woman living with Parkinson’s, LSVT BIG helps train people with Parkinson’s to use their body to increase their amplitude of movement in order to return to a normal gait pattern. This helps people recognize how small their movements have become, recalibrate their movements, and learn how to feel comfortable using larger movements.

The therapy takes place over a series of 17 visits, an evaluation and 16 treatment sessions with a therapist four times per week for four weeks. At each step, a Grand View Health physical therapist will help movements return to a normal amplitude and improve balance. Each treatment is tailored to a patient’s specific goals and needs. Treatments are effective for all stages of the disease but proven most effective for early or middle stages. Treatment in early and middle stages has been proven both to slow the progression of the disease as well as improve function. Sessions are held on an outpatient basis at Grand View Hospital.

Learn about LSVT Loud® for speech therapy.