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Greeny
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08 Aug 2013, 10:50 am

I think I have problems speaking in rhythm and tone because I have weak oral musculature. I'm trying English lessons meant for ESL speakers to learn about tone and rhythm. When speaking into a mic, my speaking sounds unnatural. Will this go on permanently? I know that I am a very capable human being, but I lack a natural-sounding tone and rhythm. What do I do? I was diagnosed with Joubert Syndrome when I was 17 years old. Because I have a lack of musculature in my mouth, I also tend to mispronounce or not pronounce certain letters. I've been told the best remedy is to compensate my abilities, but I'm afraid that won't work. I may narrowly miss relationships and social opportunities that I may otherwise get if not for this. Can somebody help me.



redrobin62
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08 Aug 2013, 1:51 pm

Hi. I had to look up Joubert Syndrome because I hadn't heard of it till now. According to one website, only 350 people in the world have it. How rare is that! Seems like some folks respond well to speech, occupational and physical therapies. Here are some sites. Sorry. I wish I could help more.

http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders ... drome.aspx
http://www.jsrdf.org/
http://www.thearc.org/
http://www.rarediseases.org/
http://depts.washington.edu/joubert/joubertsyndrome.php
http://www.allaboutjoey.com/what_is_jou ... ndrome.htm



stardraigh
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09 Aug 2013, 7:48 am

Greeny wrote:
I think I have problems speaking in rhythm and tone because I have weak oral musculature. I'm trying English lessons meant for ESL speakers to learn about tone and rhythm. When speaking into a mic, my speaking sounds unnatural. Will this go on permanently? I know that I am a very capable human being, but I lack a natural-sounding tone and rhythm. What do I do? I was diagnosed with Joubert Syndrome when I was 17 years old. Because I have a lack of musculature in my mouth, I also tend to mispronounce or not pronounce certain letters. I've been told the best remedy is to compensate my abilities, but I'm afraid that won't work. I may narrowly miss relationships and social opportunities that I may otherwise get if not for this. Can somebody help me.


In addition to speech, does your weaker musculature in your mouth cause other problems such as when eating, breathing like at night or anything else? I have TMJ and a smaller than average throat combined with a tongue that sits high so I have problems sleeping at night. I require a cpap to not die. I'm just curious about this and don't answer if you don't want to.

With anything that's not natural you'll find that the more you try and stay on top of it, you'll hit those moments, where you just don't care to do it, or you're to tired, or under less ideal conditions such as being sick where you need to focus your energy on other things. If I was in your position, I might want to attack the perceived problems you're experiencing piece meal. Separate the issues, such as the rhythm and tone from the mispronouncing and then treat it as a skill, to see if you can get better at it, but try to cope with those moments where you just can't do it or it's just not happening for you. Even if all you can do is work on just a small part of it, then maybe that's all you need to do and everyone else can go get bent.

In general, you may want to stay away from work that requires your voice as the primary skillset, so no public speaking, direct interaction customer service, no customer or tech support by phone, and nothing where you have to give out clearly heard commands to others.

You may already know all this, but I hope you find answers.


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