Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Clear speech

We all use words but there's a huge difference between writing them on a page or screen and speaking them aloud to an audience.

Personally I would far rather sit at my laptop and communicate than stand on a platform with all eyes on me.

But imagine how much harder that would be if the words just don't come.
If they get stuck behind your teeth and refuse to tumble from your lips.

And now imagine if that was the case not just in public speaking but in every aspect of your life.

Imagine how hard it would be to communicate - as a child in class or in the playground - or as an adult in every area of your life.

That's the reality for people who stutter.

Mark Arram - best buddie and esteemed founder of the East Dulwich Writers' Group - knows what that's like, having battled with stammering throughout his childhood.

But in typical procative fashion, he's pulled together the various strands of his life as a mentor, counsellor and skilled percussionist and come up with a solution that really works.

The In - Rhythm technique for relieving the anxiety in stammering is concerned with externalising the speaker's voice onto their body through the use of rhythm.

Stammering is a very internal experience: tightening of the chest, butterflies in the stomach, heating of the head, shallowness of the breath, rapid swallowing. All these things happen prior to and during the stammering speech. It is analogous to a spluttering engine where all we hear are the sounds of its faltering parts.

The In - Rhythm technique for relieving stammering tensions does away with having to look 'under the bonnet' of the stammerer by locating speech immediately on the body, diverting any anxiety away with rhythm.

The image “http://www.in-rhythm.co.uk/images/workshop5.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors. The image “http://www.in-rhythm.co.uk/images/workshop6.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.The image “http://www.in-rhythm.co.uk/images/workshop1.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Click here to see some impressive case studies and videos.
The technique is clearly effective.

This is the kind of thing that changes lives ...

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Interesting. Off to investigate, of course......