How did you improve your speech?

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Strong

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Here's my story: I was born deaf and had Cochlear Implant (unilateral) surgery when I was 7. Then I had intensive speech therapy for about 6 years, and my speech was polished and excellent.

However, my speech is starting to deteriorate and I'm pretty much desperate to get my speech back to how it was before. Unfortunately, I do not have the financial means to cover fees of speech therapy, so I will have to work on my speech on my own. But I don't know any tips that I could use to achieve this goal. Someone told me to read books out loud and record myself, so I could hear the areas of speech that need improvement.

Any other tips? I'm really desperate and for this reason, I try to avoid going to buy coffee or food myself.
 
I can't listening to my own speech , I tried to recording it and but I hate my voice so much , I stopped recording it.
 
All I can suggest is to "talk, talk, talk"...once you stop talking, you forget how to pronounce the words....Reading aloud does help...and a friend to correct you also is constructive as long as you don't take it personally, as some people do....(constructive critzisem)...
 
Try to talk has mich as possible. Practice in front of a mirror. That helped me a lot. I use to do lip reading. So i would try to imitate what how others talked. And reading outloud helps too.
 
Curious how come your speech decreases? I'm confused because you have cochlear implant?

I tend to use phone for a note or write on a paper. It's no problem for me
 
deafies will always have deafy voices… It will not changed.
 
Thanks for all the replies. No, like what I said above, my speech was really good that everyone doubted when I reveal to them that I am deaf. However, over the past few years, I've become more introverted and therefore did not talk much.

Now I want to take that back but I can't, so I'm willing to use whatever it takes to change my speech to the way it used to be before.
 
rockin'robin said:
All I can suggest is to "talk, talk, talk"...once you stop talking, you forget how to pronounce the words....Reading aloud does help...and a friend to correct you also is constructive as long as you don't take it personally, as some people do....(constructive critzisem)...
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This is exactly what happened to my speech. I stopped talking or socializing with people so I completely forgot how to pronounce certain words.
 
I'm exactly the same way as you are now. I grew up taking speech classes and I used to talk a lot, but now that I've been so busy with school, started living in my room and became very anti-social with people, I just stopped talking. And whenever I tried, I would get nervous and stammer the words out.... it's quite embarrassing, but as much as you practice talking, the better you will become. I would very much rather sign, to be honest because that's when I'm most comfortable. I hate my own voice, but I have to live with it. :dunno2: I listen to a lot of music, it has somewhat helped me talk more comfortably now. I think it's probably because you can hear the pronunciations more clearly through songs? I don't know, but that's how I practiced. You could try that or have a friend help you. :thumb:
 
Here's a true story, and a funny one. One day I was in the library, and was reading about King Tut. Well, one of the books had the correct way to say his name, so I started teaching myself, and about 3-4 weeks later, I had mastered the correct way to say it.

Now fast forward about 20 years later. I was in a museum with King Tut himself, and someone was asking who that was, and I told the person who it was, saying his full name, and what happened was that I got eyes all over me, cause it turned out no one there had been able to say his name, and I got attention for that (rather uncomfortable, mind you), and the museum talked to me, and I told them I had learned how to say it out of a book. Well, they went to their offices, and sure enough, there was the book I had learned it out of.

The morale of this story is that if you use books that can teach you how to say stuff the correct way, you'll be all right.
 
Strong said:
Here's my story: I was born deaf and had Cochlear Implant (unilateral) surgery when I was 7. Then I had intensive speech therapy for about 6 years, and my speech was polished and excellent.

However, my speech is starting to deteriorate and I'm pretty much desperate to get my speech back to how it was before. Unfortunately, I do not have the financial means to cover fees of speech therapy, so I will have to work on my speech on my own. But I don't know any tips that I could use to achieve this goal. Someone told me to read books out loud and record myself, so I could hear the areas of speech that need improvement.

Any other tips? I'm really desperate and for this reason, I try to avoid going to buy coffee or food myself.
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Do you live in America?
 
markengland29 said:
Here's a true story, and a funny one. One day I was in the library, and was reading about King Tut. Well, one of the books had the correct way to say his name, so I started teaching myself, and about 3-4 weeks later, I had mastered the correct way to say it.

Now fast forward about 20 years later. I was in a museum with King Tut himself, and someone was asking who that was, and I told the person who it was, saying his full name, and what happened was that I got eyes all over me, cause it turned out no one there had been able to say his name, and I got attention for that (rather uncomfortable, mind you), and the museum talked to me, and I told them I had learned how to say it out of a book. Well, they went to their offices, and sure enough, there was the book I had learned it out of.

The morale of this story is that if you use books that can teach you how to say stuff the correct way, you'll be all right.
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Oh yeah, books definitely help. I forgot about that. :P
 
:) I like to use books that show how to say the words... it'll go easier that way.
 
I suppose I am definitely asking the same question as some others, but I didn't see a reply. I understand not talking will eventually take some sort of a toll on your speech, but how were you able to have that large of a decrease in your speech having a C.I.? I also understand a C.I. doesn't help everyone the same... However if your speech was as good as you're saying it was, how long have you been so introverted for it to take such an extreme turn that you're noticing it on that level?
 
Strong said:
Thanks for all the replies. No, like what I said above, my speech was really good that everyone doubted when I reveal to them that I am deaf. However, over the past few years, I've become more introverted and therefore did not talk much.

Now I want to take that back but I can't, so I'm willing to use whatever it takes to change my speech to the way it used to be before.
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Why, I also seem to have the same problem. Mostly because I am out of school where I had plenty of friends to chat with orally, and now am in a new place. So I guess to fight the relapse problem we have to fight the anti-social attitude, thus try to meet people and talk as much. I find it had to read aloud, either I am uncomfortable talking alone or I wonder what the folks around me must be thinking of the content.
 
It's great, really great seeing books being put to great use. That is how I got great grammar.

As for speech therapy, may I suggest a barter system? Maybe you would ask for help with speech improvements. Offer something in return such as dog training sessions or cooking lessons?

Also, are there college campus close by that offers speech therapy program? Many speech therapy students would love opportunity to help people with their speech. It would look good on their resume. I'm sure they would appreciate your help going up the ladder. If they see an opportunity to go up the ladder, smart people will seize it.
 
Good thinking. People in medical fields WOULD love to have a resume that says "successfully helped a deaf person regain regular use of speech". That's an attention grabber, for sure.
 
markengland29 said:
Good thinking. People in medical fields WOULD love to have a resume that says "successfully helped a deaf person regain regular use of speech". That's an attention grabber, for sure.
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When I was in college, one of my dorm neighbors was an Audiology student. She asked me if I would be tested so that she would practice learning to do hearing tests. I can imagine it being the same thing in different fields. It didn't cost either one of us anything for me to do hearing test. It worked out well.
 
Perfect example right there. I like that line of practicing, because the student gets to learn, and you both benefit at the same time.
 
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