Cueing and cognitive movement strategies

People with Parkinson’s disease (PD) sometimes find that their medication is not as effective as expected and this can cause problems such as ‘freezing’. Freezing is when a person with PD feels frozen/fixed to the spot when trying to start to walk or when walking through a narrow space, e.g., a doorway. The use of visual cues, such as a line on the floor or doorframe, or auditory cues such as following the sound of a metronome or listening to marching music, are useful strategies to help with getting moving again.

People with PD may also have difficulty performing long sequences of movements, such as transferring from sitting to standing. The good news is that breaking the long sequence of movements into small sections using cognitive movement strategies (i.e., performing one section after the other and concentrating on each step), can be a successful approach. For example, to rise from a sitting position, move to the left, to the right, to the left, to the right, ‘1… 2… 3…’, and stand up.

A physiotherapist will be able to identify the most suitable cueing and cognitive movement strategies for each specific situation.