Speak To Me
The decline of speech has been rapid and tragic.
It began almost innocuously with the common failure to recall a word or name. We all have that from time to time.
The next stage was a repetition of syllables, usually at the end of the sentence - "That's what I was thinking-ing".
This deteriorated further and the syllable repetition started to replace important parts: "What is the the thing ing that that and and there?"
For a while we could clarify the communication by slowing everything down - taking a breath between words and concentrating on the diction - but eventually (quickly really in retrospect) that stopped working.
The next stage was what the Speech Therapist called 'empty sentences':
"When can can the srf nrn wuz wuzza spern ter can dn dn rhf thf thf sn fra drn?"
Try unpicking that.
This clinical description distracts from the tragic consequences we both felt. Communication is such a big part of being human that there is an sense of aching loss as it disappears. It is frustrating and very quickly exhausting trying to understand even a basic sentence.
She obviously feels she is saying what is in her head. It is another example of an automatic function that is now not working properly. Thinking about it, I don't consciously say all the words of a sentence. It is much more like I work out what I want to say and press the linguistic equivalent of the Print button and expect the fully fashioned sentence to come out my mouth. It doesn't seem to be possible for her to take direct control of this process any more. All she can do is press the Print button again and hope something different comes out.
She also seems to find it almost impossible to restart a sentence half way through. I repeat the part I did understand and hope that she can restart from there, but she has to start again from the beginning.
There are a couple of interesting exceptions to this. One is when she is talking about something she is really passionate about (Ballet or children for instance) although this is less true than it was. The other is when she is angry with me.
Failure to communicate is one of the most direct routes to feelings of isolation and the emotional exhaustion, the feeling of upset and frustration, and the helplessness in the face of another person's need is hard to cope with.
It began almost innocuously with the common failure to recall a word or name. We all have that from time to time.
The next stage was a repetition of syllables, usually at the end of the sentence - "That's what I was thinking-ing".
This deteriorated further and the syllable repetition started to replace important parts: "What is the the thing ing that that and and there?"
For a while we could clarify the communication by slowing everything down - taking a breath between words and concentrating on the diction - but eventually (quickly really in retrospect) that stopped working.
The next stage was what the Speech Therapist called 'empty sentences':
"When can can the srf nrn wuz wuzza spern ter can dn dn rhf thf thf sn fra drn?"
Try unpicking that.
This clinical description distracts from the tragic consequences we both felt. Communication is such a big part of being human that there is an sense of aching loss as it disappears. It is frustrating and very quickly exhausting trying to understand even a basic sentence.
She obviously feels she is saying what is in her head. It is another example of an automatic function that is now not working properly. Thinking about it, I don't consciously say all the words of a sentence. It is much more like I work out what I want to say and press the linguistic equivalent of the Print button and expect the fully fashioned sentence to come out my mouth. It doesn't seem to be possible for her to take direct control of this process any more. All she can do is press the Print button again and hope something different comes out.
She also seems to find it almost impossible to restart a sentence half way through. I repeat the part I did understand and hope that she can restart from there, but she has to start again from the beginning.
There are a couple of interesting exceptions to this. One is when she is talking about something she is really passionate about (Ballet or children for instance) although this is less true than it was. The other is when she is angry with me.
Failure to communicate is one of the most direct routes to feelings of isolation and the emotional exhaustion, the feeling of upset and frustration, and the helplessness in the face of another person's need is hard to cope with.
posted by Other Kosh at 10:14 pm
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