Speech

I have SCA 6, and have had progressively slurred speech. Finally went to a speech therapist. She gave me some great techniques to use. Slow down, over pronunciation, speak a little louder( it makes me slow down), and forget about your old voice and learn to like your new voice. I always think I sound ridiculous when I over pronunciate, but my husband assures me I sound fine and am much easier to understand!

I have SCA6, I get fed up with my husband saying eh to me, but we all are the same and I have to keep calm or I can't speak at all. Afraid that comes with the territory as l say.

Since I was diagnosed with an unknown form of Ataxia in 2006, my speech has got steadily worse to the point where my wife, and mum and dad struggle to understand me.

I don't use the telephone anymore (I use textphone where possible) and speak slowly when someone asks me a question.

I write things down (on a computer and print it out) prior to asking someone something.

I attend speech therapy regularly and have an app (android phone) called Speech Assistant (free) which I find very useful.

I’ll look at the speech assistant, thanks.

I am trying to avoid conversations and to do the communication by emails and written applications.

Akita

I used to have that problem, now it’s not as bad. My doctor has been working with my voice. He presses on the lymph nodes in my neck and I have certain exercises to do for my neck and throat muscles. It hurts a lot, but over the past six months, I’ve noticed a change in my speech. Because of that, I’ve been learning a new language. The ataxia does give you slurred speech. I have had people ask if I was drinking. That was a symptom of ataxia I hated.

Still Dancing...Who is your speech therapist so that I can have mine contact them about this work on lymph nodes, if you don't mind.

I have the same problem. I have some days when my speech is good and other days when it is terrible as I have to keep on repeating myself to make people understand. I get annoyed as I think in my head that I am very clear and don't understand why people are asking me to repeat. It gets very frustrating. On bad days I tend to stay away from socialising. It gets very lonely as I can't communicate. Sad really as I used to be quite sociable.

Ditto here



Bira said:

I have the same problem. I have some days when my speech is good and other days when it is terrible as I have to keep on repeating myself to make people understand. I get annoyed as I think in my head that I am very clear and don’t understand why people are asking me to repeat. It gets very frustrating. On bad days I tend to stay away from socialising. It gets very lonely as I can’t communicate. Sad really as I used to be quite sociable.

Keep speaking, even if speech is slurred! I often repeat the alphabet, count numbers or months to myself (when I'm home alone), as a speech therapist told me to keep "exercising" the muscles in my mouth, as well as my tongue and vocal cords. Just like anything, if you don't use it you lose it. When speaking to others, she said to speak slowly. ;o)