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From: florence
Date: 19 Oct 2007
Time: 16:02:02 -0500
Remote Name: 24.45.108.13
Thanks for your query, Tom. It would be good if you can find an SLP who can examine the various speech and language symptoms you exhibit. "Rate" is actually a complex phenonmenon. Firstly, the rate at which we speak dictates how relatively fluently we can encode our thoughts, language, and articulation. Some of us are simply better able to encode and output communication clearly and at a faster rate. Others might encode their output at a rate faster than they can optimally handle. One might ask why? Perhaps an analogy is the individual who by temperament likes to drive fast, even though there are "close calls" when driving excessivly fast...or at least faster than s/he can manage the curves on the road. You indicate that your rate is on the slow side. It would be very enlightening to examine in what ways you feel your rate is "slow." Is it slow because of searching for the right word or phrase? Are the articulatory gestures (i.e., how individual syllables are produced) slow? Is it "slow" because of a lot of interjections such as "um" and "uh"? Is it "slow" due to trying to weave a story in a coherent way? These are among the many clinical questions that need to be addressed, ideally with a clinician who is sensitive to the variables that contribute to rate of communication output.