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Graduate student conducts Online SPEAK OUT!® Home Practice Session for international nonprofit

Grace Puin excels at getting Parkinsons patients to speak and swallow with intent. She’s so good in fact that Parkinson Voice Project, a nonprofit organization that helps people with Parkinson’s all over the world, .

The Cuyahoga Falls native, currently studying for a master’s degree in speech language pathology, has the unique distinction of being the first graduate student at �鶹��ѡ to host one of these online, practice sessions used daily by nearly 4,000 people with Parkinson’s.

Kent State’s Speech Pathology clinic was awarded a grant by ® to develop Ohio's only SPEAK OUT! Therapy and Research Center. That grant allowed Puin to undergo specialized training about Parkinson’s and the Speak Out! Therapy Program – invaluable instruction she leveraged by working with Ravenna resident Cynthia Blinebery on speaking with intent.

The SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program, developed by Parkinson Voice Project, helps people with Parkinson’s and related neurological disorders regain and retain their speech and swallowing. This highly effective, evidence-based treatment combines education, individual and group speech therapy, daily home practice and continuous follow-ups. Patients are empowered to “speak with intent,” transitioning speech from an automatic function to an intentional act.

Parkinson Voice Project treats patients in its speech therapy clinic in Texas and is replicating the SPEAK OUT! Therapy Program worldwide by training speech-language pathologists and graduate students. Up to 90 percent of Parkinsons patients will struggle with speaking and swallowing. In fact, complications related to swallowing are the main cause of death in Parkinson’s. SPEAK OUT! Therapy has been shown to significantly improve these skills.

(Another) Opportunity Knocks

During a monthly roundtable discussion for Parkinson Voice Project, Speech Pathology and Audiology Lecturer Erin Kolonich was given the opportunity to feature Kent State’s Speech and Hearing Clinic by recording a home practice video to post on Parkinson Voice Project’s website.

“I thought it was a great opportunity for a strong, graduate student,” said Kolonich. After considering it over the summer, Kolonich and Senior Lecturer Lynn Berk decided the practice video was something Puin could do because her training got her interested in the Parkinson’s population.

“Grace was not a random student agreeing to do it, but someone who’s really learned and grown from the grants,” Kolonich said. “When Lynn and I approached her with the opportunity she jumped right on it.”

Although the training qualified Puin to record the video, she still needed a theme for the session. Kolonich sent her examples of inspiration videos, but Puin decided to go in a different direction.

“I picked Ohio to highlight some facts about Northeast Ohio where �鶹��ѡis since the participants would be international,” she said. Part of Puin’s video includes a ‘conversation activity’ highlighting seasonal attractions within the state, like hiking through the Cuyahoga Valley National Parks;  strolling through Szalay’s, a farmer’s market in Peninsula; attending a Cleveland Indians baseball game; or visiting the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Puin, who expects to graduate this summer, sent the first version of her video to Parkinson Voice Project for constructive feedback. It was a learning process that she is grateful for.

Samantha Elandary, founder and CEO of Parkinson Voice Project, said giving graduate students the opportunity to learn the SPEAK OUT! Therapy protocol and being featured as a guest instructor for the home practice sessions is something the nonprofit is honored to provide.

“We are training future speech-language pathologists who will be treating people with Parkinson’s in hospitals and clinics after graduation,” Elandary said. “It’s critical that students receive this specialized training. Since the pandemic, clinicians have had to transition to online therapy services. It’s harder than it may seem.”

Thinking back on it, Puin laughed at her first attempt to record the video on her personal computer. “It was a very rough draft,” she said. “I didn’t have the right technology. My face was too small. The audio wasn’t good.”

“Grace wants to learn,” said Kolonich. “She has such a great open mindset for a graduate student. Even when it’s constructive feedback she doesn’t take it personally but uses it as an opportunity to grow and learn to be a better clinician.”

The speech pathology program got help from Hannah Park, website and video production specialist in the College of Education, Health and Human Services. Park recorded the 15-minute video that begins with Puin putting users through specialized speech and voice exercises and sipping water with intent. The recording transitions to Puin in the lower right of the screen, juxtaposed with a PowerPoint presentation of regional attractions and ends with her emphasizing ‘nonsense’ words.

�鶹��ѡstudents receive top-notch instruction and support from the faculty. Puin said that during the recording Kolonich stood off-camera and prompted her with sweeping hand gestures and silent queues to lengthen vowels and fully close her mouth after enunciating, critical changes that addressed feedback from the first video.

“I’ve had great opportunities with the grant and I’m sure other students will too,” she said.

After meeting the needs of individual patients with neurological disorders, Kolonich said the speech pathology clinic will continue to train graduate students who will be instrumental in adding a weekly SPEAK OUT! group session and helping to maintain patient skills taught during the one-on-one sessions. Graduates can also participate in research focused on the benefits of the SPEAK OUT! program.