![\"girl](\"http:\/\/www.speechbuddy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/kid3edit.jpg\" "\\"girl")
<\/a>Source: newsfeed.time.com<\/p><\/div>\n
Communication is complicated. How often do you find yourself asking your friend to \u201csay that again?\u201d or misspeak with a wrong word or a nonsense word by mistake? It happens to everyone. Despite well-developed communication skills, even adults can\u2019t speak clearly at times. Why? Because successful communication requires the synchrony one of many skills.\u00a0 For some children, correcting an articulation error<\/a> in speech therapy<\/a>, that sound might only be one piece of the communication puzzle. In fact, that\u2019s exactly why speech pathologists do an evaluation, to assess, using an arsenal of measures, many elements of communication. Fortunately for parents who might be concerned, there are two simple things that might be impacting a child\u2019s communication that can be easily addressed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Rate<\/strong>:<\/p>\n Haveyouevermetsomeoewhotalksreallyreallyfastanddoesn\u2019tevennotice? Just like that sentence is probably hard to read without any spaces, speech without pauses can be difficult to understand. People that speak at an abnormal rate sometimes have poor speech intelligibility. <\/a>Speaking fast often causes words to run together creating unusual or distorted sounds for the listener.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n For children that speak too quickly (most often the case), try teaching them pacing. Pacing is a technique that encourages a speaker to reduce their rate by tapping or\u00a0 touching a physical marker in conjunction with their spoken message. The speaker should touch the marker or tap with every spoken syllable. For example, \u201cWho has the basketball?\u201d would be \u201cWho \u2013 has \u2013 the \u2013 bas- ket-ball?\u201d using this method. The child must be able to respond to the cue to \u201cslow down<\/a>\u201d and understand when a communication breakdown has occurred in order to successfully learn to improve speech.\u00a0\u00a0 The pacing board itself should be considered only a teaching tool and faded away as soon as possible.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n