First HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Warning this might be a tad rambling
okay has anyone have or had a speech impairment or who knew someone who did?
My search-fu has be sucking, I have been looking for discussion groups for people with present or past speech disorders. Like how can discuss Pathfinder or my favorite movie or what have you? Any recomendations.
Here is what I have been wondering. My story is that I use to have a bad stutter as a kid and too fast speaking. I took speech classes until high school. While not 100% it is a lot better now. I have noticed two things I often fail to communicate sarcasm in my tone and also a lot of people say I have an accent, and Florida accent but usually European. Even people from a different country thinks I another Euopean accent.
Have any buddy experienced this before? Got any theories? Links to articles?
Or does anyone else want to talk about their or a associates speech disorders and therapy?
I had a mild to moderate stutter as a kid, but managed to get over it and even worked as a radio announcer for several years. But in the last few years I've developed a pretty severe anxiety disorder and it's come back with a vengeance. It's not regular, but there are days when I'm "super extra jittery" that I can barely communicate with others. It can make it difficult to DM (I'm the DM/GM in our group 90% of the time) and my group tries to understand the changes I'm going through but I don't think they grasp things totally). Anyway, that's my experience.
|
I know a couple of guys with speech impairment, but neither is really crippling, and you can have a nearly normal conversation with both. One of them has a bit of a stutter, and the second has a really weird condition where he would unconsciously repeat segments of most sentences he makes. A standard combat turn in combat for him could sound something like this:
"All right, I walk ahead and walk ahead and swing with my with my mace".
It's not always that bad but sometimes figuring out what exactly he meant to say is challenging.
Don't know if either of them ever tried therapy.
I don't have a speech disorder, but the "failure to communicate sarcasm in my tone" is universal.
|
I was born in the US but I grew up in the UK; we didn't move to the US until I was eight. The public school system identified me as speech impaired: I had a British accent, a very heavy received pronunciation. Nowadays no-one would dream of calling an accent a speech impairment.
Nonetheless, now over 40, I still find myself 'slipping', especially when I'm tired or emotional (excited, angry, sad, etc.). Because I normally use a DC-Midwest accent, which most people call Unaccented American English, others visibly notice when I revert, and thanks to five years of twice-a-week speech therapy, I'm very self-conscious about the whole thing.
As soon as I notice a reversion, I consciously try to calm down, speak more slowly, and really fully form each next word mentally before uttering it. It can be very difficult, and often it means being less active in a discussion for a few moments while I collect myself. Maybe the same trick can work for you.
As a small kid I couldn't pronounce the [r]-sound (quite a handicap considering the Swedish accent I speak is pretty darn rhotic).
Luckily for me, this was when the school system was still run at a national rather than municipal level - so for about a year I'd get to skip one of the regular lessons and walk off to spend 40 minutes on my own with a speech therapists until I learned how to say "En Riddare Red Över Ararats Berg" with properly rolling of the Rs.
I still slip occasionally if I get excited and speak a sentence with a lot of words beginning with R in quick progression. However, I have noticed (and noticed back then), that once people get to know me, this isn't something anyone pays attention to.
If your group know you sometimes stutter, they probably won't even think about it after a while - it's just part of who you are.
My son, who is now thirteen, had what they call "severe speech delay," which is a sort of catch-all for when a child does not begin to speak at the normal time, but they cannot otherwise find a neurological or psychological cause.
We could not afford private tutelage, but what we could afford was to pay rent in a fairly nice area with an incredible school system. We worked hard to keep him here so that he could get the best imaginable public school help in the whole region.
He spent Kindergarten half in therapy and special needs classes, and half with the other kids. Then spent about three years just in the special classes, before they decided it might be better for him to spend half his time in one, and half with the kids in the regular classes. They really have done an amazing job with him. He's in 8th grade now, and is advanced or grade-appropriate in most of his subjects.
However, he does still have trouble communicating clearly what is on his mind. It breaks my heart; you can tell he is thinking important things, and has a good mind for thought, but when he tries to express himself, the words do not always come out in the right order, or sometimes he hears a word, and cannot get it out right, causing us to work to try to figure out his meaning, which can occasionally cause him a bit of frustration. I don't know if he will ever be 100%.
Still, he is an amazing kid. You never hear him complain, and he never seems to think of himself as special or dumb, or anything (just one time did he seem sad to be "different," and it killed me). He is incredibly well-adjusted. Very happy with who he is in most respects. He's really a testament to the great teachers and therapists in a most excellent school system. (In California, no less, where most of our schools have really suffered from budget cuts! I could never complain about our district, they actually really care about the kids.)
@Vorpal Laugh: I was born with brain damage. The areas of my brain that were damage was mostly the speech area. From this I got a bad speech impediment and mixed dominance(messing up my coorindination). It is pretty funny what you saids about sarcasm and people thinking I have a funny accent...I get both all the time. I can be very sarcastic too...so I often have to tell people aftwards I was joking.
Also it is very odd is that when I get angry perople say that I am very clear.
Yeah, I was a Thalidomide baby, and to this day, I cannot find a clear answer on just what may or may not have been affected. I do have a speech disorder; I will use the wrong word or speak in spoonerisms (or both), especially when I'm tired or stressed out. (Although I, too, am very clear when I'm angry.) The worst part, though, is that I mix up my hands, so it's almost impossible to type on a good day, and absolutely impossible if I'm stressed.