Your voice
It has been said that how we say something is 5 times more important that what we say. Your voice directly affects the way people react to you. It can mean the difference between getting the resident to follow your instructions or creating a conflict. Your voice can influence whether you’re taken seriously or not. If residents can’t hear or understand you they are less likely to cooperate.
Articulation
Articulation is the process by which sounds, syllables, and words are formed. If people can’t understand what you’re saying they won’t be able to work with you.
Remember the tongue twisters we chanted as children?
“How much wood could a woodchuck chuck …”
“She sells sea shells on the sea shore,
If she sells sea shells,
Where are the sea shells she sells?
Or
Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper;
Where is the peck of picked pepper Peter Piper picked?
Well, they can help your articulation. Practice toungue twisters and keep repeating them as you increase the speed. Eventually you’ll get tongue-tied, but that’s okay. This will strengthen the muscles around your mouth and your throat. Start again and try to go a bit faster the next time.
Poor articulation is when the sounds of words are omitted, substituted, distorted, or just plain slurred. The two most common problem areas are adjacent words that are blended together, as in “shoulda” for “should have”, and sounds in words that are omitted, as in “fishin” for “fishing”. Here is a list of some of the more common problem words:
Think of the following
gonna = going to
woulda = would have
coulda = could have
shoulda = should have
ta = to
moun’n = mountain
foun’n = fountain
finely = finally
probly = probably
whatcha = what are you
gimmie = give me
importn = important
ya = you
and dropping the “g” from any word ending in “ing”
Good articulation helps the person to hear and understand what you are saying more effectively, it is very important for older people who are deaf.
Vocal Variety
- Pitch is the easiest way to add variety. It’s the highness or lowness of the voice. Some people use only 3-4 notes when they speak. We call them monotone. You should use a range of at least 8 notes.Try reading the newspaper using a LOT of pitch range. Really go “over the top.” It will sound silly, but keep working at it. As you get used to hearing yourself speaking with a greater range of notes, it will become easier to use them in everyday speech. Just as you won’t speak as slowly as you practiced in the previous exercise, you’ll tone down your range as well, while still keeping some of the increased variety.
Vocal Variety is dependent on breathing and breath control being aware of your speaking habits strong mouth lips and tongue. Remember the tongue twisters to help strengthen these.
Now watch the video on VOICE
You will find it in the customer serivce workbook category.
Listen to more about improving the quality of your speaking voice.
