C – Communication

I remember watching an comedian with Cerebral Palsy (Rosie Jones, available to watch on You Tube) saying that one of the worse things about having Cerebral Palsy (CP) is how long it takes her to say the words Cerebral Palsy – 5 whole syllables! When you think of it, it is quite ironic. As I said in my last post, not all people with CP do have a speech impediment and if they do the extent of it varies considerably. Most years, I go on a holiday with Disabled Christian Fellowship and there are three of us who have different degrees of speech impediment, I am sure when the three of us are talking together it probably does sound like we are talking in a different language! It was quite funny this year as one of the ladies was trying to explain to her carer that she wanted to go to the toilet, and would be down for dinner shortly. The carer could not understand so my other friend tried to interpret what she was saying, yet again the carer really did not know what was being said. I was the final person trying to interpret and as I was beginning to laugh, I ended up walking over and pointing to the toilet. We got there in the end!

Some other funny stories from my experience are:

• Asking someone whether they had a cold and they thought I was asking whether they had a goat!
• Asking in a shop whether I was able to pay at the pharmacy till and they thought I was asking whether I could put it in my ear (I was buying a tube of Savlon at the time)
• Telling someone that I went to Tesco and they thought I’d been to a disco!

In order to overcome the problems which my speech causes I quite often think of different ways to say things. When I was going on a cruise (a 40^th birthday present) very few people understood what I was saying so I ended up saying I was going on a boat and then explaining that it was a cruise!

By employing strategies (thinking of how to rephrase certain words) my speech difficulty doesn’t stop me from getting my message across. As you can see from my website – www.beawarebeclear.org I give talks in order to raise greater disability awareness. It is probably fair to say that when I do start talking people are a little unsure whether they will be able to understand but once they have got used to my speech then the communication problem does not seem so prevalent. I often use PowerPoint when giving talks so people know what I am going to talk about next. When I do talks to primary schools or youth organisations such as scouts, I keep my talks quite short and to the point! I also find when I give talks, because I know exactly what I am going to say and am well rehearsed, my speech therefore is clearer compared to when I am having a general conversation. How clear my speech is also depends on whether I am tired so the little bit of adrenaline which I get, when giving talks also helps!