[ Contents | Search | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Vivian Sisskin
Date: 11 Oct 2009
Time: 17:58:14 -0500
Remote Name: 71.191.81.161
My observation is that slowing speech rate will increase fluency. It can also lead to a monotone speech quality. I find that if PWS spend a lot of time and effort on slowing rate, they end up thinking about “how” to speak, rather than what they wish to communicate. Sometimes nonverbal aspects of communication are lost, and we no longer enjoy the personality of the speaker (wit and sarcasm, for example, that are lost in slowed speech rate). I prefer to offer a cognitive strategy rather than a motor strategy: Resist self-imposed time pressure; take the time to stutter and say all that you want; enjoy the moment that you have the floor; and take care to listen to your communicative partner (efforts to slow rate also take a hit on one’s ability to “give” in a communicative exchange). Planning (the operative word) to resist self-imposed time pressure often creates a less hurried approach to communication, where rate is slower in a natural way, and where pauses are tolerated at natural phrases.