See My Interview On WABC-TV Eyewitness News, Channel 7, NY

Jun 082018
 

Stuttering as a form of therapy has been successful for many famous actors.  See my interview to find out who they are and why it works.

See the full article here.

After his interview with Emily Blunt who speaks about her stuttering, Sandy Kenyon became intrigued about how dramatics can help stutterers. He reached out to me to explain the nature of stuttering and why it can be an effective therapy tool.  

In the interview Sandy and I discuss how Marilyn Monroe used her “sexy” voice as a form of breath control.  The key for many stutterers is breath control: specifically, “airflow technique” in conjunction with “easy onset” of breath. 

Many actors including James Earl Jones, Emily Blunt and Marilyn Monroe found relief for their stuttering through dramatics.  Being given a “role”, a new persona, allows them to become a person without a history of stuttering, as well as a written text they can mark for breaths, which is critical for stutterers.  An actor can rehearse these lines and achieve smooth, fluent speech.

Throughout more than 30 years of practice, I have worked with stutterers of all ages, children as well as adults,.  If you would like to see more articles I’ve written about stuttering click on these links:

http://lazarspeech.com/2013/05/08/the-kings-speech/

http://lazarspeech.com/2014/06/12/the-kings-speech-revisited/

http://lazarspeech.com/2015/08/24/are-ums-and-ahs-a-form-of-stuttering/

As a communications consultant, I also work with professionals to improve their speaking skills and become confident, effective speakers. You can find out about the range of my services by reading through my website. 

Call or email me to find out more about how I write a speech or coach you for a presentation — or improve your overall speaking skills.

Will Speech Errors in Childhood Become Adult Problems?

Feb 192015
 

The little girl’s lisp and the boy’s “British” r’s sound cute at age 3, but not in the adult speaker.

  • Do children outgrow early articulation errors?

Children learn to pronounce the sounds of their language from a young age by imitating what they hear and using trial and error.  By matching their own production to the sounds of adults, teachers and the world at large, children develop speech during the first years of life.  Most modify early errors by age 5 to 6 in a predictable pattern. A normal feedback mechanism based on listening and imitating is the key to how a child learns to speak.  By age 6, nearly all speech should be pronounced with standard sounds (within a child’s environment.)  By age 7 at the latest,  a child’s speech patterns become “natural” and will not self correct.

  • What affects normal speech development?

Frequent ear infections often cause delays in a child’s speech development.  The regular feedback loop for hearing and matching speech sounds can be disrupted by fluctuating hearing loss during ear infections and by congestion that persists afterward. Some children have difficulty in oro-motor dexterity so that imitating the speech sounds around them can become difficult.  Sounds requiring highly coordinated movements of the tongue may develop later (by age 6-7) — or not at all.

Once speech habits become ingrained, however, they become more difficult to change.  So the longer an incorrect pattern persists, the longer it will take to correct. The key to helping a child develop a speech pattern free of articulation errors is early intervention: before the ear to mouth feedback process shuts down — generally by age 5 .  After age 7, children stop modifying their speech patterns on their own.

Older children, teenagers and adults rarely listen to how they speak; what they’re saying becomes the focus.  In this way the errors in a child’s speech pattern become part of the adult’s normal speaking habits.

  • When should speech errors be corrected?

The earlier professional treatment takes place, the easier and faster the process to correct speech errors.  Teenagers and adults who are motivated to develop clear, error-free speech can be helped by a speech pathologist at any age.  But early intervention will prevent childhood problems becoming adult errors.

Most adults recognize that to some degree we are judged by what we say and how we say it.  To the adage “we are what we eat” one may add, “we are how we speak.”

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Check back soon for more articles on speech and language, voice, writing and cognitive function.

Your Child’s Speech and Language Development: Is There a Delay?

Oct 232014
 

“Along with a child’s first steps, the first spoken word surely ranks as one of the high points in a parent’s life.  Those first words — along with early phrases — stay in a parent’s mind.  Later, we take for granted the physical and intellectual feats that children exhibit on a regular basis, but those first words, usually 10 to 20 by 18 months are truly spectacular.”

[read more here:  Your Child’s Speech and Language Development (pdf). Your Family’s Health, Fall/Winter 2014.]

Speak Up, Speak Clearly: Is That All There Is To It?

Sep 042013
 

“Speak up, speak clearly.”  Sounds like a mother’s or a teacher’s reminder. Growing up, most people hear these words of advice.  Speaking in front of a class, an audience, interviewing for a job, meeting new people  — these are just a few situations in which speech counts.  Not speaking too softly, not mumbling or rushing your speech seem to be the keys to being a successful speaker.  Indeed, they can be considered as  cornerstones for effective speech.

But what’s behind the idea of speaking clearly? Surprisingly perhaps, the individuals we consider good speakers all share the virtue of what used to be called good “elocution,” a term one rarely hears now.  The basis of elocution is pronouncing the sounds of the English language with “standard sounds; that is, speech without articulation errors. Good articulation develops in childhood and needs to continue throughout the adult years.

Doesn’t everybody learn to imitate what they hear when they’re young?  The majority of people learn to articulate the sounds of our language in their early years.  But not everyone.  Frequent ear infections, colds, enlarged tonsils and adenoids are just a few of the reasons that speech skills may not develop uniformly. Children who don’t pronounce the standard sounds of English by the time they’re five or six years old may need speech therapy to learn to speak properly.  When these problems aren’t addressed or solved in the early years, the same speech patterns continue into adulthood and become one of the key reasons why some adults don’t “speak clearly.”  And if they realize they don’t “speak clearly” they may not be confident in “speaking up.”

Can articulation be remediated at any age?  While it’s certainly easier to change a speaking pattern at a younger age, adults can modify their speech at any age.  With children, the process usually works best in a play context in therapy supported by home practice with parents.  Older individuals can make these changes as well, sometimes with less difficulty because they recognize the problem and bring self motivation to the process.

What about the other keys to speaking up and speaking clearly?  The basis for all good speech rests on pronouncing the sounds of our language in the same way as everyone else in society. Once the fundamental issue of proper articulation is resolved, the other factors critical for effective speech can be addressed.

I’ve written about some of these other important elements in previous blog articles:  “The ‘Um’ ‘Ah’ Problem”  and “The Two ‘P’s’ for Effective Speaking“.   You might like to read further on the question of how to speak clearly.

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Check back next week for more thoughts on speech and language, communications, and executive functioning.

 

 

 

 

 

Launch of LazarSpeech Website

Feb 262013
 

LazarSpeech, a  private practice helping children and adults develop and improve their communication skills, has launched a new website.  Please visit the website, LazarSpeech.com and share it with colleagues, friends and family.  Feel free to share articles in the Publications section and leave your comments.  I will be adding additional Blog posts on topics of interest and welcome your ideas for future articles.  You can also email me questions and comments at: Info@LazarSpeech.com.  I look forward to hearing from you!

“Author Helps Clients with Communication Skills”

Jun 102012
 

From Business News: Author Helps Clients with Communication Skills, by Linda Viertel

Most commonly, traditional speech-language pathology support can help young children with developmental speech issues such as stuttering, pronunciation, word-processing and receptive language skills. But, this vocation can help high school aged children as well as adults who need communications, writing and organization skills improvement. Speech-language pathologist, former college writing instructor and published author, Gloria S. Lazar (M.S., M.Phil., and CCC – Certificate of Clinical Competence) provides a wide range of therapeutic services and support for individuals in need.

Lazar’s graduate school clinical studies, in addition to her role as a teacher working with reading specialists, has given her an untraditional multi-faceted approach to the support she provides her young clients. She considers herself a “caring practitioner,” who “loves working with people and making a difference in their lives.”

Read the rest of the article here (pdf)

Speaking Out: After Your Child’s First Words

Jun 102009
 

Along with a child’s first steps, the first spoken word surely ranks as one of the high points in a parent’s life. Whether it’s car as in the case of one of my sons, or hi for my other one, those first words — along with early phrases, car gone, I see — stay in a parent’s mind. For the first couple of years, every milestone achieved seems worthy of a phone call or email to family and close friends. These small acts of normal growth seem miraculous. And they are. Later, we take for granted the physical and intellectual feats that children exhibit on a regular basis, but those first words are truly spectacular. What happens after the first words?

Read the rest of this article here (pdf)