Most of us are gifted speakers and perhaps take this vital function for granted. I am now going to take a closer look at difficulties in speech, how it affects the happiness of the individual concerned and suggest some options that may help.

Speech is the human capacity to express oneself and communicate with others through the spoken word. Speech is a succession of voiced sounds that form in the vocal chords over which air must flow to create sound. Speech is complex. Learning to speak is a multi stage process.

“Natural speech is a communication of information by means of the codes of language,” says Julian Ullman, Professor University of London. These factors are necessary to communicate: firstly, a definite motive of what needs to be put across; secondly, the use of a particular language code and thirdly, the mechanical ability to articulate that code.

Swedish linguist, Svedelins, described two types of communication relating to two different types of psychological structures:

1. Communication of events represented in concrete images: ”He kicked a ball”

2. Communication of relations requires more complex linguistic codes: “George Bush is a man” “That is my sister’s daughter” “The shoes are under the bed”

Organising and understanding these complex structures requires transforming concepts along a chain until comprehension is attained. For example: ‘sister’s daughter’ means “I have a sister, my sister has a daughter and that daughter is related to me, she is my niece”

According to the late A.R. Luria, Professor of Neuropsychology, University of Moscow, these two kinds of verbal communication function in different cortical systems in the brain. If a lesion is situated in the posterior parts of the speech regions of the brain’s left hemisphere then acquiring language codes suffer. This may result in language impairment.

Damage to the anterior parts of the ‘speech areas’ results in firstly, difficulty in combining words fluently in sequence to make sense and secondly, a break down in skilled and precise movements of the organs of speech.

ORGANS OF SPEECH

In order to speak, certain ‘mechanical’ functions must be able to operate. These are: tongue, teeth, voice box, lips, and the Broca’s area of the brain organizes the relevant muscles that enable us to speak. Dr Charles Krebs in his book “A Revolutionary Way of Thinking explains that “To be able to speak we need to be able to control the breath, the tension of the vocal chords and the shapes of the muscles in the throat as well as tongue and lips. All must come into play in a particular sequence before we can utter a sound.” Undue pressure on the sphenoid bone, such as a forceps delivery, may damage brain tissue directly responsible for speech. Further speech difficulties can result from a vaulted palate, crowded teeth and hearing problems.

Dr Stephen Juan, Professor of Education, University of Sydney, and author says, “10% of children are not able to adequately process the rapid changing sounds of speech… a higher percentage of these children go on to be reading impaired.”

DEVELOPMENT OF SPEECH AND LANGUAGE

What does a child need to know to acquire language?
He needs linguistic, cognitive and communicative competence, say various scientists.

1 Competence is abstract knowledge.
‘s’ usually forms the plural. Small children will say ‘mans’ or ‘sheeps’ (without ever having heard these words) without knowing the rule consciously, but applying the rule anyway.

2 Competence is generative: it generates new instances of the understood rule. ‘Sheeps’ is a new creation.

3 Competence is cognitive. – conscious awareness
The speaker has to have something to say and needs to KNOW what he wants to say. He needs to understand the MEANING of what he says. Then he can express himself.

4 communicative competence that is, an ability to communicate.

In observing young children, it was seen that speech alone was not enough. Body language and visual cues are necessary for competence. When a child says, “Mummy shoes”, does he mean ‘those are mummy’s shoes’ or ‘put my shoes on’? The child was understood by following his pointing finger. (Peter Herriot, Professor of Neurology, University of Zurich) Facial expressions is a primary source of information for judging another’s mood and even his character. Other peoples’ expressions affect us. Our expressions may generate basic aspects of individual and social behaviour..

5 Social competence
The child must be able to follow others in a conversation and realise when it is their turn to speak.

5 Competency in auditory processing - listening and hearing
Both the speaker and listener need to agree on the meaning of words. I frequently after discussion on a topic say, “Just let me rephrase that…..”; or ‘have I understood you correctly when I say …...” I have found this to be helpful in establishing the message from the speaker and avoiding misunderstanding.

Babbling is the utterance or hearing of incoherent speech sounds. It is believed that babies produce all the speech sounds of any language in their babbling and then gradually select the sounds relevant to the language they hear.

As young children my siblings and I grew up speaking 6 languages with great ease. If someone spoke to me in French, I automatically replied in French, and that was true of all the languages. I could stand In a group of multi lingual people and converse with them fluently. It would have sounded like a babble to a single-language person listening!

At age 1 the child may utter one word sounds: Ma Ma Da Da. At age two the child constructs two word phrases “car gone” “daddy gone” At age four child often uses own name in three to four word phrases: ‘Mary go bed’ ‘that what I do’. By the age of 5, says Vygotsky (L.S. Vygotsky “Thought and Language”. Cambridge, Massachusetts) normal children have a command of several thousands of words indicating some very rapid and efficient learning has gone on in those five years. This vocabulary includes a mix of object names (ball) and words expressing feelings and needs (afterwards, now, ) and words that have a function (jumping). The meaning of words depends powerfully on the context of occurrence as well as a knowledge of actual words. A person’s speech has an enormous influence for good or ill and is a sure guide to character. With a word we can uplift or destroy: ‘you’re an idiot’ or ‘ your beautiful’.

SPEECH DISORDERS

One parent took her child weekly to speech therapy for five years and she says it made little difference. His articulation was poor, almost impossible to understand but his comprehension was excellent. Kinesiology revealed many emotional disorders including an obsessive pre-occupation with ‘family’, deep seated unresolved anger and hatred. As the sessions unfolded I noticed that he now is comfortable with eye contact, uses humour appropriately, enunciates his words with greater clarity, has become calmer and that there is significant reduction in his anger issues. His parents are very pleased at the many improvements they see at home and teachers have remarked on improvements at school, both behaviorally and academically.

There are both neurologically and emotionally based types of speech disorders and I will discuss here only some of the disorders that I encounter reasonably frequently in my clinic work.

AUTISM

Autism is a very rare condition identified by Leo Kanner, an American psychiatrist. It occurs about four out of 10,000 births, and it occurs four times more frequently in boys than in girls.

The word means “self concerned or independent” and characterizes social withdrawal. There may have been complications during pregnancy and at delivery. Screaming and feeding difficulties often follow. At about age 2 development of speech may stop or lessen. Social responses do not develop and bizarre behaviour commences. The child may not cuddle normally and experience perceptual and speech difficulties.

Psychiatrist J.K. Wing says that obsessive behaviour such as attachment to favourite objects, little or no eye contact, difficulty making friends and difficulty in adapting to new situations to an abnormal degree all point to a malfunction of the central nervous system. G. R. De Long. Neuropsychologist, says that there may be a bilateral lesion in the hippocampal area of the limbic system of the brain and J. G. Small points out there may be further damage in the vestibular nuclei. These conclusions together with recent research suggests that the cause of autism may be organic rather than psychological.

APHASIA

Aphasia is the disruption and/or loss of speech caused by damage to the brain tissue and is a very distressing development, although chances for recovery of most speech is usually pretty good. The breakdown may be due to two factors.

Firstly, the “ non-fluent” factor which relate to the speech control areas of the brain called Broca’s area. Indications are that the person has difficulty finding the appropriate word, naming objects, with syntax , talks hesitantly and is aware of his poor communication skills.

Secondly, factors described as “fluent” due to a breakdown in the Wernickes area of the brain. In this case the person may emit a stream of words which constitute meaningless jargon and sounds. This person is unaware of poor communication.

DYSLEXIA

This is “word blindness” and includes a disability in learning to read accurately, erratic spelling and deficiencies in the written language while the spoken language may remain excellent. Emotional problems of varying degrees are often identified, but some emotional stressors can be quite subtle. Disorientation of the pivotal controller in the brain plays a part here. In kinesiology we can balance the Orientation Point, which brings about significant improvements. There are two types of dyslexia:

Type 1 Dyslexia has a history of language disorder, delayed oral language acquisition, poor auditory discrimination and speech disorders.This type shows a cognitive disorder which concerns a linguistic coding disability.

Type 2 Dyslexia may show problems in visual perception, problems with memory and the student may be neither strongly left nor right handed.

It is believed that dyslexia is not due to any structural brain disorder or damage which means that it may be emotionally or psychologically based. Kinesiology is an ideal modality to gently and effectively clear these stressors and so restore the student to “the seeing eye” as opposed to the “word blindness” that has so limited the child.

ASPERGER’S SYNDROME

Dr Stephen Juan, anthropologist and educator in the Faculty of Education at the University of Sydney gives a good description of Asperger’s in his book “The Odd Brain”, which I here summarise.

Asperger’s and autism share many similar features but peculiar to Asperger’s is that the ‘afflicted’ person exhibits no feeling for others. These people do not appear to understand that if they hit someone they are hurting the other person. Besides being unable to give or receive love, those suffering from Asperger’s have little or no ability to make friends. Social interaction is one-sided, naïve and inappropriate. This can often lead to destructive behaviours such as arson.

Starting in early childhood, Asperger’s sufferers often exhibit poor speech and non-verbal communication such as responding to cues from facial expressions. They are often clumsy, poorly physically co-ordinated and often hold an odd posture. They show lack of imagination and may become intensely absorbed in certain subjects, such as memorizing bus timetables. They speak obsessively in a monotonous tone of voice, at length and at inappropriate times on the subject of their interest. They do not make eye contact but will have a vast detailed interest in the environment. The child can memorise numerous facts and understand what they mean. They may be quite intelligent. They often experience extreme anxiety and depression, making employment and normal social functioning difficult or even impossible. Martin Bryant who gunned down 55 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996 was thought to have suffered from Asperger’s.

STUTTERING

Behavioural scientists call extreme shyness “social phobia”, roughly estimated at one in six Australians suffering from social phobia. This makes it the third most common psychiatric disorder after alcoholism and depression. “Stuttering masks social phobia,” says Dr Stephen Juan. It is a widespread problem and occurs in varying degrees, as do all the speech disorders. Social anxiety is the main source of speech disability. It is a persistent fear of being judged, scrutinized or of doing something embarrassing or humiliating. Their feeling of dread is deep seated as they feel threatened to an extent that we would find hard to grasp.

The most common fears are fear of writing in front of others, fear of eating in public and fear of speaking in front of others. So how sufferers cope is by firstly, avoiding the situation if they possibly can. For example, a six year old student avoids writing in her diary at school and charmingly engages in conversation with nearby students, or rushes to ‘help’ another student and generally delays to such an extent that the allocated time is concluded before she has written anything. The second strategy sufferers use to cope is to act in an inhibited fashion with controlled behaviour until the socially phobic situation comes to an end. The third response is to show various physical symptoms such as blushing, sweating, muscle twitching, heart palpitations, ‘shaking in fright’. Harvard University undertook a six year study of SPS (socially phobic sufferers) and the evidence shows that their heart rate is far higher than non affected children, and remains high even when not directly in a socially phobic situation. They are terrified of negative evaluations of themselves by others. They have fewer positive and more negative thoughts than do others (Dr R.G. Heimberg, State University of New York.) Several findings suggest that serotonin dysfunction in the brain may contribute to the condition and to a tendency in depression.

SPEECHLESSNESS

One year 7 student (12 years old) that I work with does not speak. She shakes her head, or nods or otherwise uses facial expressions. But she refuses to speak. She is clever, capable and very creative. But also very unsure and wont attempt any task in my class. She always wants me to do it for her, and when I refuse to actually do it for her (after having already demonstrated quite clearly what I want) and move away, I observe that she gets another student to do it for her! I am only there part time.

Then there is the ‘speechlessness’ of not knowing what to say in a given social or relationship context, or worse, knowing what to say, or being in possession of relevant and vital information and not having the ‘courage’ to say it to that person.

Furthermore, spiritual scientists and other wholistic leaders contend that speech may become unnecessary in the time ahead. SMS text messaging and email (have you noticed how dehumanized this form of communication is? A brief ‘Hi’ when in a letter we write ‘dear’ and in face to face speech we say ‘hello’; how people send poems and writings in lieu of sharing their own life experiences and the general bluntness of this method of communication?) are possibly such precursors. Some psychologists are saying that SMS text messaging is becoming a disease. Telepathic communication may take the place of verbal communication and that we may be able to speak in ‘thoughtform’ only. Some people are already very adept at this and I have been both the subject of and the object of telepathic communication with definite measurable outcomes occurring.

OVERCOMING SPEECH DIFFICULTIES

Nutritional Support As speech is primarily a function of the brain, following certain nutritional guidelines can be enormously beneficial. Avoiding sugar (also known as sucrose, dextrose, maltose, glucose) in any form, wheat, apples, oranges, peas and milk and dairy products is a start. Recipes to the Rescue by Jann Bonner, Lindy Kingsmill and Suzanne Morrow is a great book for more information.

Supplements and homeopathics also help and referral to practitioners’ is a good idea.

Avoidance of EMR’s
Of all the appliances we use, computers, fluorescent lights (all schools have them) and TV are the worst for sustaining brain integration and therefore brain function. Many students have TV’s in their bedrooms and the little red light beams directly onto them all night long causing impairment of neurological function. At the least, the light must be turned off at bed time, and the room have some ventilation even on a cold night. If a TV backs onto a students bedroom this too will have a deleterious effect on the brain.

Drinking water and taking kelp may, to some extent, help overcome the damaging effects of these appliances.

Kinesiology

Kinesiology is a method of accessing the electrical function at the heart of each cell, the nucleus, and the stored information can be transformed from a negative emotional molecule to a positive emotional molecule. This ‘energetic’ process restores balance to the body system’s flow of vitality and organization of the life force (called ‘kinusis’ in greek). This may all sound very strange but all kinesiologists could tell you wonderful stories of positive outcomes in their work with their clients. Kinesiology is gentle, always respecting the individual, non invasive, accurate because it addresses the core issue precisely and once that issue is balanced at that particular level of the body’s involvement, it remains in balance and in a state of well being. People tell me “that it is already working. My life is better, thanks to you.”

SELF EXPRESSION IN COLOUR

As anyone with speech difficulties, but particularly children, feel very self conscious, I tend to take the pressure off their speaking and focus on drawing or painting with colour to enable them to freely bring into substantial form the unspoken or ‘spoken–only-in-difficulty’ feelings, concepts and confusions going on inside. (Note: In the case of the “stutterer” I draw or paint alongside the student as even this enjoyable task may make them feel threatened.) Art is a safe form of self expression and the end result gives the student a sense of achievement and deeper understanding of themselves and their relationship to their universe.

BASIC ART KIT

Materials are a board 620mm by 520mm (A3 size, but if you have small working space A4 is fine too), a box of coloured pencils,a packet of oil pastels, a packet of Crayola textas (muscle monitored up to be the least toxic) and a palette holding 6 acrylic colours wrapped in aluminium foil when not in use, a couple of brushes, a water jar and a chux cloth on a table in your working room. I muscle monitor up the specific task found in the Kolor Kinesiology program (author Rainbow Wilson) and off we go. Sometimes the task is ‘free choice’. . When the picture is complete I ask the student to give it a name and then to complete the statement “I AM…………” I then do the eye modes with this statement. I write this and the date on the back and keep the picture in their file. It always amazes me how pertinent the art project is, and how great it is to see the satisfaction in the students face. They look as though a huge burden has been lifted. There is no doubt that colour heals by restoring balance to the functioning of the cells that make up the various organs, including the brain and speech organs, and therefore the Gift of Speech can be fully utilized and enjoyed.

NOTE: for ease of reading I have used the pronoun ‘he’ but in grammer the masculine pronoun automatically includes the female gender, so please read this in its grammatical context.