Speech improvement

[Joe2020]

Please any tips on improving my speech

[Elenor3]

Sing along to anything and everything . I’m sorry I don’t know how your speech is affected so I hope that’s an appropriate suggestion.

For babies and children in normal speech and language learning, and for learning a second language - singing songs and repeating them over and over is often a primary method of building the brain connections and mapping them to the required tongue & mouth movements.

Wishing you well with your efforts x

[Joe2020 in reply to Elenor3]

Thanks. I can talk but can't hold a conversation as long words are difficult to pronounce for me. Short words are OK. I have become really quiet in public gatherings or the office.

[Elenor3 in reply to Joe2020]

I do feel for you - I have word finding difficulties when I feel pressure - like in a work or business situation. Also I made up a lot of longer or unusual words at first after the accident for quite a while.

I’m sure that pressure to appear normal affected my speech at first - trying to make a good impression- but it often made me worse. It’s taken me a

Long time to build up a bit more confidence and chat to people. It just takes time :/ singing is good for many things - especially the way things are right now :/

[Joe2020 in reply to Elenor3]

The word's are there but I tend to look for shorter words which will be easier for me to say. This causes a slight delay which most people don't understand. My speech therapist who was assigned to me just finished university. Very young girl we had about five sessions and she was moved to Manchester and that was the end of my session. Apparently I don't need a ST from my GP recommendations because they can understand me. Had 3 requests turned down. I know I clearly need any help I can get.

I couldn't walk after my surgery and have managed to walk normal again except for some balance issues e.g going up stairs with hand rails. But that's minor issue compared to speech as people judge you on how you speak I have noticed. I seem to be ranting but I am usually mellow.

[Elenor3 in reply to Joe2020]

Indeed - people make judgements without the knowledge of how you really are :/ I wish you all the best with your recovery. I wonder if there are any resources on the Headway web site ? I’ll have a look

[Joe2020 in reply to Elenor3]

I got you mixed up with sealiphone I just realised lol

I will get the hang of this forum

[charlie5540 in reply to Joe2020]

in my experience my gp's decisions are not based on my needs or health condition/requests but on budgeting constraints of my gp practice following its adaption of the clinical commisioning group mega structure

[Joe2020 in reply to charlie5540]

I was thinking it was about budget. The recurring theme is I am understandable.

[sealiphone]

At the Headway group I found, listen patiently, don't fill in the 'lost' word and this makes someone much more comfortable and you can find their communication with you goes better than with other people.

So if friends and any work colleagues adopt that very simple approach you may find that space allows you to grow in confidence, not feel stressed and help your slow recovery.

[Joe2020 in reply to sealiphone]

Thanks again. I was actually recommended to this headway group by a lady from Chichester. My role at work is technical which helps and doesn't help at times. Some days I rarely speak to anyone at work as most people have their heads down

[RecoveringH]

Hi Joe,

I had a stutter. Until someone told me I was not aware of it. Around this time, I was dyslexic in my reading, letters would dance around, Spelling was very hit and miss, same sounding words were used instead which made the meaning difficult to understand, long words (as you say) were difficult. I could not work out which bit to emphasise and I would simply stare at the word and think Um.

There was a time when I didn't know the meanings of a lot of words when reading but that improved quickly. And the other niggle, I knew I knew the word but just could not remember it, so had to reach for replacements by listing similar words and posing them as questions and looking at the other person as if to ask them to choose for me which of the list of words made sense! So a range of issues around speech.

How did I fix it? By practicing. Building confidence.

Open the window of Google translate. It should show you two boxes. Type in the left hand box the word 'hello'. Underneath the word a picture of the microphone appears, move your mouse over it and the text says 'listen'. Hit the listen 'button' and the computer speaks the word out loud. I found this very useful when a three or four part word had complicated emphasis. I would listen 3 times to each word then repeat it. Make a list of difficult words. Then practice them a week later to see if I got them right.

Using Google Translate, I also practiced saying out loud translations of words in other languages I knew, so Welsh, French, German and Spanish. Somehow this helped. As the emphasis shifts in these different languages, so when I got back to English, it seemed somehow easier.

Also speaking to a counsellor. I found the more speaking you do without fear, the easier it comes.

Also speaking to the lovely people on this forum on the phone and face to face.

And by watching videos on YouTube of people who had overcome a BI. Hearing them speak, helped me learn mechanisms for working around the blockers I had in conversations.

Wish you all the best in singing along with the Youtube video:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Lyrics

lyricsondemand.com/soundtra...

Song

youtube.com/watch?v=1Pu1adx...(Not working as expected?)

You might look into a Magnesium-L-Threonate Complex like MagEnhance which has 78% of 5 stars on Amazon from 1500 ratings. I've used this over the years as it is said to penetrate the blood brain barrier.

Also fish oil capsules for the omega-3's which are said to help the brain function.

[Joe2020 in reply to RecoveringH]

Thanks for the tip. I would start on it in the morning. Every little helps

It seems repeating words is quite helpful. I have an idea I don't know if it might work. I plan on reading random novels out loud in my car chapter by chapter a couple of times.

[charlie5540 in reply to RecoveringH]

hello recoveringh i have been wondering and using a trial and error approach to supplements and had settled for a range which included omega 3 and magnesium and calcium then had all of them and my drugs stolen in a suitcase i left at a bus stop. maybe i should look up this magnesium l threonate complex as somewhere to start again circumstances so easily take over from the best and noblest of confidence building intentions

[charlie5540]

whilst i cant help specifically i do think my communication issues are a manifestation of my past injury along with headaches

[Joe2020 in reply to charlie5540]

Thanks for this

[Pairofboots]

I had trouble early on, my speech therapist suggested using substitution, word's I found difficult, was there a word I could use instead.

This came fairly naturally for me. It did cause some hilarious moments, I called my now ex wife a pot, because it was the only word that I could think of at the time.

Nine years on, I still have to use that method, especially if stressed, but in general I'm ok.

I'd suggest as others swinging songs, any song, for some reason we find it easier to word find even when we make the song up, read out loud, this saves us having to think of the word's but makes us verbalise different word's, keep a note pad handy, sometimes if we get stuck, writing the word can help us say the word, and if we can't say it we can show it, smart phones can do similar if it is safe to use (you are not somewhere that some oik won't nick it).

Last thing I would say is speak anyway, even if you mess word's up, don't be self conscious, everyone messes up sometimes.

I also carried a laminated card with a simple message, "Sorry, I've had a stroke, I get my words muddled, please be patient, thank you", I made it double sided, it just meant I didn't have to fumble so much to show it.

[Joe2020 in reply to Pairofboots]

Thanks this is very helpful . I am about to work from home from 9am due to corona. I will add more stuff in due course

[sashaming1]

There are lip/mouth/tongue exercises that you can do (for the muscles and brain). And certain words to practice (over and over) to get your brain trained. I need to do mine more often than I do. Hmmmmm...

[Joe2020 in reply to sashaming1]

Thanks for the advice, I wish I found this forum a year earlier but it's all good. I have a couple of mouth exercises

Saying "Ah"

And opening my mouth wide and returning it to a whistling position. I just need to do it more often.