Improve your clarity
- Ask a close friend who spends a lot of time with you to tell you if you're not speaking clearly. Work out a secret sign they can warn you with.
- Try some simple jaw exercises to enhance clarity of speech. Use a mirror to help you. Here are three exercises to help. These also help relax the jaw, making speech a lot clearer:
- Try tongue twisters. Start off slowly, and gradually build up until you say them at normal conversation speed. When speaking them, overexaggerate the words, making your tongue, jaw and lips work hard. As you become more sure of them, begin to project your voice and overexaggerate the words more.
- Have a conversation with yourself in front of the mirror or even record yourself. It may sound silly, but it does help. Overexaggerate the words as you speak and make sure you're moving your mouth, tongue, lips and jaw.
- Gargle some lukewarm water with a pinch of salt. This helps relieve tension in the throat.
- Avoid speaking with clenched teeth.
- Don't rush when speaking. Talk deliberately, but not so slowly that you sound like a robot.
A Few Exercises:
Try these exercises for around 5 minutes a day:-
- Make chewing motions while humming gently.
- Stretch every muscle in your jaw and face. Open your mouth as wide as possible (as if you were about to yawn), while moving your jaw in circles, and sideways. Purse your lips tightly. Smile really widely then frown (really exaggerate it).
- Open your mouth wide, as in the previous exercise, and shut it again. Repeat 5 times.
- Say "AW"- (like "Arkansas" -- drop the jaw). (Repeat x 10)
- Say "EE"-Pull the corners of your mouth back and say "Eeeeee...." (Repeat x 10)
- Practice these vowel sounds by adding any consonant. For example: "paa paw poh poo pay pee pie, saa saw soh soo say see sigh.."
- Another exercise is to write a few sentences on a piece of paper, then underline the last letter of each word. When you read the paper, exaggerate the last letter, then pause for a few seconds. You could also put commas between a lot of the words.
When doing any type of exercise you shouldn't push yourself so far that you hurt yourself. If you feel any pain, relax a bit.
You may feel a little weird or even amused while doing some of these exercises, but the more you practise them, the easier and more rewarding it will become.