Get Over Yourself ... We're Only Disabled! Part 6

Get Over Yourself... We're Only Disabled 

Hi my lovely readers, hope you are well.  Time for chapter 6! This one focuses around the subject of speech and the effects of speech difficulty in people with disabilities . Enjoy!

Chapter 6

Give people time to process what they are thinking and want to say; Don’t rush them - What they have to say is important

People with disabilities who might have dysarthria or speech delay might need a bit more processing time to say what they want to say.  This shouldn’t be rushed and people need to have the time to wait until the person has finished.  People will need different lengths of time to process what they are thinking and make themselves feel understood.  It is not their fault, it is how their brains have developed with the disability. 

People shouldn’t interrupt the speaker mid-sentence or finish what they are saying, even if they know what they’re going to say.  This is disrespectful because this is not giving them time to think about and say what they want.  I get frustrated when this happens to me as I feel that people are saying that I take too much time to speak, even though they just want to help me out.  For instance, if the person knows me really well they will know what I want and will do the best to help me out, however, I would rather have the time to say it myself and then I will help if the person hasn’t fully understood - this way they get to know my speech better and it is helping my independence.  I feel that this should be the case and people should listen to what others want to say.

I feel that the more time that you give to a person to speak, their speech will be better and more controlled as they have had time to think about what they want to say.  I think that everything that people want to say is important and other people shouldn't rush them. 

It is good to make people feel confident when they are trying to speak. Rushing them or talking over them will not help the situation and might make the person become shy when speaking to people. People should feel that they can say what they want and when they want. 

Letting people have the time to speak is helping them to practice their speech technique in a real life situation.  I feel that there is no point in providing us with speech therapy without the opportunity for us to put it into practice.  It is like throwing all the time and effort down the drain if this happens. This is the whole idea of speech therapy, so we can use it every day.  While we are practicing new words and techniques, people should encourage us to carry on and feel inspired to do well. 

The important point in this chapter that I am saying is, however long it takes for people to communicate this shouldn’t impact on what is going on at the time.  It doesn’t matter if it takes somebody two minutes or twenty minutes to say what they want, it is about the concept of letting them say what they want to say.  I know that people don't have a lot of time with busy lives themselves, however, it is really important for people with speech difficulties to feel the same as everybody else and be able to communicate how they want to and feel confident enough to do so.  I know I can’t change people’s perceptions of people with disabilities, however, I would love people to have more patience when speaking to somebody with a disability. 

I really hope you have enjoyed reading this chapter, thank you for reading.

Abbie xx