FREE Workshop Test-Taking Skills BeeAroundTown.com With Happenings Close to Home ooking for something to do close to home? BeeAroundTown. com, created by Anna Kelberg Kim, was recently re-launched to the public. It gives you the best buzz about activities and events in our neighborhood. BeeAroundTown.com provides free service to every business or individual to find and to post local events throughout Greater Cleveland Area. Simply create an account and submit information about your event or location. Registration is free and includes access to all listings. There is also an opportunity to receive weekly e-blasts. Whether you're looking for restaurants, kids' activities, sports, recreation or entertainment, BeeAroundTown.com makes web-surfing easy. “Our mission is two-fold. It increases awareness about life in local communities, in order to connect consumers with small local businesses, and it keeps local dollars local,” Kelberg Kim told us. “What sets us apart is how much we focus on local happenings versus just events in and around the downtown Cleveland area,” she added. As a business, please provide information to be listed. As a consumer, please check out what's being offered! You can also find BeeAroundTown.com on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. H as your child ever studied hard for a test only to come home with a poor grade? Successful students not only study hard, they study smart, and they know the best ways to approach each type of test. The Tutoring Center is offering a free one-hour workshop designed to help intermediate and middle school students learn techniques for making the most of their study time, as well as strategies for success when taking various types of tests. The workshop will take place on Sunday, February 22, from 4:30-5:30 p.m., at The Tutoring Center, 30659 Pinetree Road, at Lander Circle near Heinen’s. While there is no charge for the workshop, registration is required as space is limited. Reserve a spot for your 5-8 grade student(s) by calling The Tutoring Center at 216.292.4357. L Women4Women, Knitting4Peace tart off your new year by joining Women4Women Knitting4Peace, February 6 and March 6, from 10 – 11:30 a.m. at the Beachwood Library. You don't have to know how to knit or crochet – they will teach you! Share good times, ideas and creativity. For more information, contact Iris November at lbrtyclub@gmail.com. S I “Big and Loud” f you heard someone say, “C’mon let’s get BIG and LOUD,” you may think “pep squad.” In a sense, you’d be right. After witnessing the miraculous transformations for persons with Parkinson’s disease, physical and speech therapists at Menorah Park’s Peter B. Lewis Aquatic & Therapy Center became invested and inspired by techniques developed by LSVT Global, called BIG & LOUD®. Parkinson’s, which affects the nervous system, is the second most common degenerative disease, following Alzheimer’s. “Many in our community have been touched by this disease, and it is incumbent upon us to do all we can to help – especially when we have the skills to do so,” echoed the therapy team. Their passion for improving daily living of those under their care led four physical therapists and assistants and two speech therapists to become certified in BIG & LOUD®. They are currently the only professionals in this area who are engaging in these groundbreaking techniques that have been proven effective and that are currently being studied to determine the program’s additional strengths. The creator of BIG® compares it to accelerated tai chi. Another physical therapist describes patients who were unable to stand when they began the therapy and were able to walk a half mile after BIG® therapy. BIG® is only four years old and, even in its infancy, is showing tremendous results. By working with clients to practice exaggerated, big, repetitive movements that mimic movement patterns important to everyday tasks, therapists effectively help persons with Parkinson’s improve their abilities to do everything from dressing to enjoying the simple pleasure of playing with a grandchild. The first step is to identify tasks significant to each client so that therapists may tailor the therapy to serve each person’s specific needs. LSVT LOUD® was developed in 1987 and has been scientifically studied for nearly 20 years with funding support from the National Institute for Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health. Published research data support improvements in vocal loudness, intonation, and voice quality with improvements maintained up to two years after treatment. Recent studies have also documented the effectiveness of this therapy in improving the common problems of disordered articulation, diminished facial expression and impaired swallowing. Additionally, two brain-imaging studies have documented evidence of positive changes in the brain following administration of the therapy. LSVT LOUD® improves vocal loudness by stimulating the muscles of the voice box (larynx) and speech mechanism through a systematic hierarchy of exercises. The treatment improves respiratory, laryngeal and articulatory function to maximize speech intelligibility. Similar to BIG®, that uses exaggerated movement in therapy to encourage normal movement, the treatment does not train people to shout and yell. Rather, it uses loudness training to bring the voice to an improved, healthy vocal loudness with no strain. The LSVT LOUD® and LSVT BIG® uOne person in every 200 will be diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his/her lifetime. uApproximately 1% of the U.S. population over the age of 65 is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. uThe Center for Disease Control estimates that as many as 40% of all cases may go undiagnosed. programs are each administered in 16 sessions over a single month (four individual 60-minute sessions per week). This intensive mode of administration is consistent with theories of motor learning and skill development, as well as with principles of neural plasticity or the capacity of the nervous system to change in response to signals – critical to attaining optimal results. For more information, contact the Peter B. Lewis Aquatic & Therapy Center at 216.595.7345. 34 Beachwood Buzz n February 2015