Can't coordinate speech properly

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Does anyone else have issues with (physically) coordinating their speech?

My entire life I've had issues with articulating my speech and stuttering when I talk, due to not being able to coordinate it well. I have to speak in short responses or take a lot of pauses when I talk, or I will stutter and slur what I'm saying. I don't talk much IRL unless it's to a select few people due to this, and stay quiet most of the time. Beyond those select few people most people don't really pay attention to me when I talk, since I take too long or am too hard to understand.

Yes.

I don't stutter but my dad did. I find physical speech and facial expressions exhausting. I slur my words and try to speak without moving my mouth very much, which is funny because I actually had a ventriloquism doll when I was a child.

I was referred to a Speech & Language Pathologist when I was in second grade, because of my odd accent but also difficulty with pronunciation, enunciation, and reluctance to speak. I was diagnosed or labelled with Mutism because I was so anxious about speaking. I went back to SLP in fifth grade and onward, and then again after my first stroke (2015) when I lost a lot of verbal vocabulary. I hired another SLP last year to deal with my mutism (which is now labelled "Selective" - but I think that's a very misleading descriptor as I really can't "select".)

I hate having to repeat myself, being told I'm speaking too loudly / quietly, or being told I'm mumbling. It doesn't help that I won't make eye contact with people and I seldom even face people when I speak to them. Most often I'm turned the opposite direction or walking away from them by the time I manage to say something.

You're not alone.

Oh, I forgot to say ... is it possible you're tongue-tied? I just discovered that I am. I have to get it snipped.

Speech issues are common in autism.

In the last post Isabella mentioned Speech and Language Pathologists. That is the way to go. Autistics are usually a large part of their clientele. They are often part of the diagnostic process.

I went to one when in high school for garbled words caused by my undiagnosed autism. In 2015 due to tongue cancer, I had a tongue replacement operation. I did not speak for over a year due to the trach put in. I saw speech pathologists. I had to start from scratch. While my speech is not normal they helped a lot.

Yes very much so. Maybe it’s linked to anxiety as much worse in stressful situations.

Not sure what causes this maybe the same biological thing that causes non verbal autism but on a milder scale.

Either way I have serious problems getting words out or linking thoughts with articulation.

Then again thoughts get messed up too sometimes so probably more than just articulation.

I'm lucky enough to be a singer and voice actor even if I do it professionally.
I had difficulties and went to a singing teacher who also was some kind of speech pathologist or therapist. She helped me a lot. I never needed therapy. It is more like I just needed extra help with speech or voice in general.
Anyway, I had difficulties with not using the wrong muscles or just making a forced R sound. I even had prosody issues.
I am now a very good actor and singer.
One issues people often have is using the wrong muscles when speaking or making sounds.
You can also have a short lingual frenum which makes eg R sound a bit difficult.
That's the difficulties I am familiar with.
Struttering is something I never had to deal with.
One should always do exercises. I practice my Rs and so on...

I always do diction or articulation exercises. That is the way to go.
People should do speech exercises more.
I often even practice who I can say just one sentence perfectly. Detailed-oriented? Maybe!
It helps a lot.
Also, physical exercises for good posture like what is called core is of important.
Acting exercises has helped me.

Funny thing is I had speech therapy as a child, because my talking wasn't correct (also talked in a monotone) and I hardly talked, yet they missed any autism diagnosis. Ah well.

I'm decent about speech now, but if I get in an unfamiliar situation or new situation and have to socialize then I get pretty stuttery and awkward.

Last edited by Lady Strange on 23 Jun 2022, 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The SLP I hired last year was trained in voice for theatre and singing.
R's have always been difficult for me too.
I have a hybrid accent that's somewhere between Yorkshire and Boston.
Also, tongue-tie makes some sounds very difficult because of tongue restriction.

Learning to rap helped a lot.

I don't know if I have a tongue tie. I do have issues with R's and S's, but that's not too often now. I also know speech issues are common in autism, though I feel like people have different causes for their issues, and mine are due to not being able to coordinate my vocal chords and tongue/mouth as well as I should be able to. In my case it kind of goes hand-in-hand with my motor skill problems.

Tongue-tie? Does it mean that the tongue is tied to something?
It is really amazing how much a little training can do.
What I found to be really difficult is fast speech. Slower speech is so much easier.
With faster speech you may not pronunce all the consonants.

And how are these two difficulties different?
I have had motor skills difficulties and eg having a good piano teacher helped me a lot. We have too much problems with tension and balance. Is this a motor skill issue?

My speech changes based upon coordination with my tongue or mouth being weird sometimes, so sometimes I enunciate or pronounce some words oddly. When I'm excessively stressed out and tired, sometimes I can't even enunciate words. I often can't yell when angry or scared or startled without sounding (sometimes very) drunk. I used to scream "ERF QUACK" when an earthquake hit. My speech center just... locks up sometimes.

Yes, same. I have a lot of difficulty putting thoughts into words. The stuff I say can be pretty incoherent and all over the place, especially when under stress.