By pronouncing words clearly and speaking at a comfortable speech rate you improve your speech intelligibility.

Speech and Diction

"My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe."

Jimmy Durante, actor, singer, pianist, comedian

If you speak too quickly, if your speech is slushy, if listeners have trouble understanding you, or if you have a hearing loss that impacts your ability to speak clearly, we'll guide you to speech clarity:

  • Pronunciation of Vowels and Consonants
  • Speech Rate and Rhythm
  • Intonation
  • Verbal Fluency
  • Voice Projection and Endurance

    Many adults are plagued with speech problems that impact their intelligibility as well as their self-confidence in communicative interactions. Some adults make speech errors that never resolved during childhood. Others have difficulty pronouncing certain sounds as a result of regional dialect habits, hearing loss, or dental or medical problems. Habituated fast speech rate or speaking too softly or loudly can interfere with how well we enunciate words, whether we're understood, and the impression we make!

    Common distortions in American speech include lisping of 's' and 'z' sounds, or difficulty with pronunciation of 'r' or 'l.' For some people, substitution of 'd' for 'th,' omission of 'g' at the end of -ing verbs (ex.: runnin', sleepin'), or slushing of 's' in 'str-' words (ex.: shtreet, sthrong) can be enduring regional speech patterns. Sounds that we may have difficulty hearing clearly over the telephone - s, z, f, v, j, ch, sh -- are the sounds that people with hearing loss may be having the most trouble saying.

    To learn more, or to register for a class, call SPEECH arts at (914) 629-7043

    • Serving Westchester, NYC and Connecticut
    Communicate Today!
    (914) 629-7043
    speechsrl@yahoo.com