Hi again BW - regarding the wrong word thing, have you looked into Aphasia at all? There's a sub-group for Aphasia on the AVM site if you want more info.
BWGreen said:
I've noticed my speech getting worse over time - I'm still understandable, but quite often I'll either slur words or the wrong thing will come out. I notice it more when I am reading something - trying to concentrate on what I am reading and speaking seems to be harder. And when I am talking conversationally I am slower in what I say - not painfully slow, but just more intelligible. My wife notices it a lot more than I do! I've seen a speech therapist - it seems that some sounds are harder than others for me. She had me read one line, and both her and my wife didn't have a clue what I said!
I guess what I am trying to say here (no pun intended) is that for me, going slower seems to work.
It's not that the wrong words come out - it's that something totally unintelligible emanates from my mouth! To me, when it happens, it seems that I can't properly control my tongue or vocal chords - but, if I try to repeat myself it is fine. I am a bit of a fast-talker, so slowing things down is a good thing, especially for those around me.
I thought about Aphasia - the Speech Therapist doesn't think it is an issue with me.
It must be difficult to explain EA type 2.My speech and balance are consistenly poor but at least I know where I am.It must be very hard to have unexplained attacks as you are costantly wondering what caused it this time.I dont even have an accent as my speech has got worse this year.Its awful when people dont understand you.You feel so gormless even though part of our brain is functioning normally.Sometimes you are treated as if your cognive abilities have been affected.Its very frustrating.But they may have a hearing problem so I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt.i get annoyed and upset when people ask me to repeat mself because it means I was unintelligible and i have got to go through all that effort again .I need to do some more work on this.
I have similar problems with speaking long sentences and it's to do with co-ordination of breathing and speaking, when speaking normally we take in breath first, then speak... then breathe out.. then in... then speak, it happens so automatically we don't have to think about it. when you get Ataxia you lose that ability for your body to do this automatically and things go out of synch. The messages to get muscles ready to speak at the right time are not getting there on time so words are coming out when body is trying to breath out making it sound like you have asthma or something. Speaking on a breath also makes it more difficult for you to control pitch, volume and intonation of your voice.
People now assume I was born very deaf from my speech if they didn't know me before and I also get treated as if I have learning difficulties. It's very frustrating as you can see from my written English, my ability to think in sentences is not affected, only my ability to control the muscles to speak the words!
As I am deaf too, I can't actually hear my voice properly so only can guess from listeners face whether they got what I said. It's annoying when people politely say Yes to everything like they understood when they didn't! The audiologist did that when filling in form for hearing dogs then wrote down something completely different to what I had tried to say, so gave up trying to speak verbally and typed all replies on Lightwriter!
Thanks for the explanation.Its so frustrating when your brain is clear yet you can't form the words because of muscles not working properly.I rely a lot on my hearing when I am out on my scooter.I can hear cars when they pull up behind me.I go quickly through tunnels.I am not very good at facing people when trying to talk.I suppose I haven't got used to the habit yet.
Iknow the problems with my speech are not slurring but breathing at the same time.That has affected the volume etc.
I have recently tried taking a breath befor i speak.We do take skills like being able to speak and walk for granted until we lose them.I am grateful for my eyes and ears.
I'm nodding in agreemnt here! My health is generally ok but I have always suffered with 'fuzzy' speech..............I suppose I have had Ataxia so long I just talk people to death. I have found if I tense my vocal chords like a accent does help. But what has probabely helped me the most is tackling another language, I now speak Turkish, French & currently learning Spanish. I use Earworms best one I have come across (google it) comes in cd or download so I can talk to myself in whatever language on the way to work in the car every morning