We came across this interesting website that we’d like to share with you. All you have to do is take the short quiz and see if your accent actually matches up to where you’re from.   http://www.lewrockwell.com/spl3/american-accent-quiz.html

Did you know that many companies will reimburse for continuing education classes? Many of our clients who need to speak well for their job get reimbursed for their elocution lessons whether it’s for accent reduction or voice and diction. Businesses realize how important it is for their employees to be able to speak with confidence and clarity. After all they are the ‘voice’ of the company. 

Lisps can be very cute on young children. But when does it stop being cute and become a concern? Children should be able to produce the /s/ sound by the age of 71/2 – so that’s the age we usually start to correct it. If your child is an actor, his/her agent will probably suggest it at this time if he hasn’t already. 

There are two kinds of lisps. The frontal lisp is the most common. This is when the tongue comes forward between the front teeth and sounds like your child is saying /th/. This type of lisp can often correct itself up until the age of 7 1/2.

The second type of lisp is the lateral lisp. With this lisp the air comes out from the sides of the mouth and often sounds slushy. Think of the cartoon characters Sylvester the cat or Daffy Duck. The lateral lisp rarely corrects on it’s own. When a child has a lateral lisp it often affects other sounds like /sh, ch, j, and z/.

The staff at Elocution Solution has had over 30 years experience successfully correcting articulation problems in both children and adults. We’ve had many adults come to us who haven’t had their /s/ corrected when they were children and it’s never too late.

Is your voice tired at the end of the day? Do you feel that your throat is sore? Is your voice hoarse? 

If you’ve been feeling any of the above for a prolonged period – then it’s time to visit your doctor. These symtoms may be telling you that your vocal cords are not healthy. We’ve had several clients come to us with these symtoms after being diagnosed by their doctors with vocal nodules. Nodules are calluses on the vocal cords. This happens with vocal misuse such as: speaking in the wrong pitch, not enough breath support and/or too much tension. Vocal nodules usually respond very well to speech therapy. Therapy includes teaching vocal hygiene, proper breathing techniques, voice placement, relaxtion and good posture. You should be able to speak all day without feeling any of these symtoms if you’re caring for and using your voice properly.

We’re very excited about our new video book “The Elocution Handbook”. We have worked with so many people who didn’t have an articulation problem or an accent but needed to sharpen their speech. “The Elocution Handbook” is designed to fulfill this need. In it we work on:  practice for each sound and tips for how to improve your pronunciation of each one, difficult consonant combinations that give people so much trouble, commonly mispronounced words, and tongue twisters. This is just the diction portion of elocution. You can view a sample on our products page. http://www.elocutionsolution.com/products

We are currently working on “The Elocution Handbook – The Voice” which will cover how to develop your best speaking voice.

 

 

Just discovered a great book – “The Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson. It’s witty and informative – about where our words, spelling and pronunciation came from. With all our bodies have to do to produce speech it’s amazing that we speak fluently and are understood. Here’s a great quote from the book.

 “In normal conversation we speak at a rate of about 300 syllables a minute. To do this we force air up through the larynx…and by variously pursing our lips and flapping our tongue around in our mouth, rather in the manner of a freshly landed fish, we shape each passing puff of air into a series of loosely differentiated plosives, fricatives, gutturals, and other minor atmospheric disturbances. They emerge as a more or less continuous blur of sounds. Syllables, words and sentences run together like a watercolor left out in the rain.”

LA Times had an interesting article about UC Berkeley having it’s incoming freshmen make recordings of their speech to study their different dialects. Read the full article http://www.latimes.com/health/la-me-cal-accents-20110717,0,2416575.story.

Did you ever have to give a presentation and feel that  ”my voice isn’t strong enough or I’m going to lose my audience’s attention,  or my speech just isn’t clear enough”? Giving presentations requires that you have energy in your voice, vocal variety, and clear,  precise articulation. This not only applies to presentations, but also job interviews, and getting that promotion.

How you speak says a lot about you. Next to your appearance, it’s the first impression people have of you.  When you sound confident, energetic, and strong, you will feel confident, energetic, and strong and people will see you that way.  Most people get nervous when they have to speak in front of an audience.

Speech improvement classes will give you the tools you need to overcome your fears. To see what we cover in our speech improvement class, go the services page.

“Time and money spent in improving the voice pay a larger interest than any other investment.” William Gladstone

We’ve suddenly had a rash of students who are coming to see us because

people have told them that they talk too fast and they can’t be understood.

This could be a bi-product of our fast paced life where we are always

using IM talk, lol. Maybe you talk too fast because you think your listeners

will not stay with you. BUT…Your listeners will tune you out because they can’t

listen fast enough and will not be able to process what you’re saying.

 

Another problem with speaking fast is that most people tend to omit

sounds or syllables. SO…your speech will become sloppy.

In order to overcome the sloppy speech you need to tone up your

facial muscles! Oral Aerobics is a must.  If you were an athlete you wouldn’t

jump into your sport without working out first. And so  speakers must also work

out and build up their muscle strength. Our Oral Aerobics program is available

on our Products Page. If you would like to see a preview of it

here is our YouTube video.

 

 

People keep asking us ….”What is elocution?” It’s an old term that dates back to middle English (1500s).  The term is  still  used today in England much more than in the United States.

Elocution is defined as: a clear, concise manner of speaking. The word derives from the word ‘eloquent’ being adept at skilled, easy, pleasing communication of a thought, idea or feeling. Elocution not only focuses on diction but also on  using the voice properly. Before speech therapy became a recognized profession, people who were correcting speech were known as elocutionists. Elocution was so important to a child’s education that it was taught in the public schools. Somehow, we have gotten away from the importance of ‘elocution’ and sloppy speech has become the norm. At Elocution Solution our goal is to bring back the art of speaking beautifully without over enunciating as they did in the past.

Now with all the well deserved awards being bestowed on “The King’s Speech”, elocution is coming into it’s own once again.