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Re: Logopaedy - Now "Move Your Lips"
Great idea Margie, except to us , we ARE moving our lips, and we are also smiling! Then someone comes along and says, "You look so sad", and you think, how in the world could I look sad when I'm grinning from ear to ear. I have gone to a mirror when someone has said that to me, and sure enough, I'm not smiling at all. But I have gone through all the motions of smiling in my mind. Put on a happy face, and still end up with a blank stare!!! Inside, I'd bet money, marbles and chalk that I had a smile on my face.
I don't know about Dick, but my speech problems start in the back of my throat, I start to say something and it rattles around in back as if it might decide to become an asthma attack instead of a sentence. Getting my voice to project was a problem for me the last year I worked. I was lucky though, since I was a librarian, everyone thought I was just trying to set a good example of being quiet in a library.
Practicing in front of a mirror sure can't hurt. Thanks for the idea!! just me, Marjorie
I know many PWP experience difficulty being heard and understood. It has been one of Dick's complaints, too. I always hear it spoken of in terms of voice volume, but no one ever mentions that PWP may not be enunciating clearly, besides. If you think of the "facial mask" that accompanies PD, it would make sense that maybe the lips, and even the tongue and other vocal structures, aren't moving as freely or as much as in normal speech.
In other words, I suspect that if PWP would also think in terms of moving their lips more when they speak, they could be more easily understood. It's certainly my observation that when I have the most difficulty understanding Dick, I can hear sounds, but can't distinguish words. It's as if I'm hearing vowels and mumbling, with no clear consonants. Just a thought, fwiw. I don't know if it would help to try practicing speaking in front of a mirror, concentrating on the actual movements of producing speech. Wouldn't hurt, anyway.
Margie, cg for Dick, 55/18
<< It sounds like you are experiencing what a lot of other PWP do with their voice. That is, diminution in volume, loudness, almost like hoarseness. One of the things about this situation, is that we have "re-set" our own screening ability as to intelligibility - we think we're adequately loud; but others say "What?and Hunhh?" frequently enough to know that this is a real phenom. >>
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