World Parkinson Congress 2016

Did you know that one of the first signs of Parkinson’s can be Micrographia – small or illegible handwriting? It is something many people ignore until other symptoms appear. Looking back, the first sign of anything wrong was a change in my handwriting. I had been a calligrapher for years. My lettering was beautiful and precise. My handwriting, however was a different story. It was never beautiful, but was always legible. One day I noticed that my foot started shaking while writing. I was having trouble controlling the pen. I shook out my hand and continued to write. This would happen every once in a while, with no discernible pattern. Eventually other symptoms appeared and my hand and foot tremors became more persistent. And my handwriting continued to deteriorate.

A funny thing is that if I put a calligraphy pen in my hand, I had much more control than if I used a regular pen.

A Strategy for improving your handwriting

At the World Parkinson’s Congress in Portland in 2016, I attended an art workshop led by Saba Shahid and her company Art Cart. We painted and did exercises for our hands and our smiles. 5 years later our paths crossed again when I heard about her Combatting Micrographia course to improve handwriting for people with PD.

A few weeks ago, Saba did a presentation about her program for Sunday Mornings with Twitchy Woman. Once again we did hand exercises and brain exercises and worked on our handwriting, getting a taste of what is offered in her 7 week course. We learned that the course if beneficial for everyone with PD, even if your handwriting is still good. You will learn strategies for improving your handwriting and preventing further deterioration.

You can learn more about the program in a recent Brain & Life magazine article about Saba.

A great opportunity for you

Because there was a lot of interest from the people who attended the meeting, we are now offering 2 courses exclusively for followers of Twitchy Woman. The start dates for the 7 week courses are July 5 and August 5. There is another class starting on June 2 that is not exclusive to our group. The course is $300 and includes all materials, which will be shipped to you prior to the start date. We have a limited number of $150 scholarships for those in need.

In addition Creative Neurology has a closed Facebook page for people who take the course. All follow up activities offered through the page are included in the original cost.

If you are interested in participating, please send an email to Saba at livebetter@creativeneurology.com and request an application. Please let her know which start date you are interested in.