Tips to make speech more understandable

There are many things you can do in your day to day life that will make you clearer and easier to understand.

• Make eye contact with the person you are talking to.
• Avoid noisy and distracting environments.
• Speak slowly.
• Avoid looking down, when talking, look forward.
• Use facial expression  and gesture to enhance your message.
• Breathe deeply, from your diaphragm, when talking to give your voice more power.
• Use conversational rules such as turn taking and staying on topic.
• Investigate other forms of communication such as writing your message, signing or using an electronic device to speak for you, if you are having problems being understood.

Make an appointment with Voice and Accent Speech Pathology for assessment and speech therapy, if you have concerns about your speech or voice.