Hi,
Recently I've been thinking about the impact of having speech and language difficulties in every day life. For me, as well as having CP, I have a minor speech difficulty which has got progressively better due to speech therapy and a lot of hard work, at one point it was so bad that only my mum and carers could understand me and now most people can.
I feel that having a speech difficulty it can be as frustrating as any disability. I mean we all have a natural instinct to voice our opinions and for people who have stammers or can't pronounce certain sounds it can be a massive barrier in every day life.
Now my experiences with disability are mostly to do with my physical disability and not so much to do with my speech so I've had to talk with different people about how it effects them and what they would like people to do differently to be inclusive. So here's a list of 5 things that in our opinion need to be hi lighted.
1. Be patient! Don't talk over them or change the subject before they have the chance to say what they have to say
2. Maintain eye contact! Don't appear to be distracted and not paying attention. Show them you care about what they are saying and that you are listening until they are able to say it.
3.if they ask you to order food for them or introduce them, don't tell them "they need to learn how" or "they need to practice" just help out!
4.DO NOT ask "what's wrong?" Or "are you sick?" You have no idea how downgrading that is.
5.DO NOT laugh or snicker when they can't quite get a word out when speaking or reading in class.
By doing these things you can boost confidence and maybe start to break the barrier of frustration.
Byeeeeeeeeeeee
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