Don’t stutter at the examination or how to recall everything

  How to behave at examinations, if a child has a stupor, stumblings or the complete speech block? Andrey BLUDOV – the director of RC  for biocybernetics, tells about it, continuing the discussion of  a stuttering  and logoneurosis problem.  

EXAMINATIONS are a stress not only for the people with speech problems: stuttering  and logoneurosis. Examination can unsettle the speech of any person. Who of us did not feel a stupor and impossibility of normal speech during   oral tests? Similar problems occurred   during the performance for the audience or carrying out of presentations. At this moment one  envies the  outstanding story-tellers, who can hold for unlimited time the attention of the audience in front of the camera,  compare  interestingly the events with each other. From this point of view I admire Vitaly Yakovlevich Woolf, whom once I  had to meet at the program  “Principle of  dominoes”,  devoted to the influence of speech on the interlocutor. We even specially analyzed the characteristics  of his speech and intonations.  

What happens to  voice and speech

 In most cases the tone of muscles of a larynx and vocal ligaments increases because of excitement and excitation of the speech center, and as consequence, the voice pitch increases (we  discussed this problem in the last publication and even examined schemes). Sometimes  the voice even "falls down" to  falsetto. Vocal ligaments act as the drawn string. Besides  the subglottic  pressure increases, that is similar to the increase of pressure in the bellows of organ. The voice becomes  loud, (if we listen from the outside),  though the person himself does not hear it – “symptom of a wood-grouse”. The pitch of a voice during speech increases from a mediant for a fifth or even an octave. 

 At pathological fall of the   Broca's center tone - the second extreme  - the voice becomes low, monotonous, uncertain. Both in the first, and in the second case the coordinated work between the associative center, which constructs phrases and sentences, and Broca's center, is broken. As result, thoughts don’t form  the correct phrases, phrases are said with breaks, or we can observe a stupor.  

The "tense" voice influences the brain.

 It is necessary to remember, that our voice is a mirror of electroencephalogram. And the "correct" characteristics of electroencephalogram - a guarantee for the effective work of  brain. So, incorrectly functioning speech organs for  feedback mechanism interfere with the concentration of attention, suppress work of associations and extraction of  necessary material from working memory. The unnatural pitch of  voice causes the incredible inhibition of  cerebral  cortex. Excessive intoning results in abnormality of beta rhythm. I shall explain. The so-called "intellectual" beta-rhythm of  brain has a frequency up to 38 hertz. It is in a field of natural intonation. You, probably, paid attention, that people who have a "cold" head in critical situations never raise their  voice and intonations, and therefore they  always take correct decisions or find  necessary words. 

 The second extreme  - insufficient intoning makes a voice monotonous, colorless, uncertain. The range of intonation - about 7-10 hertz, namely at frequency of 7-13 hertz - a natural “wave of fear” sounds, which is radiated by typhoons, earthquakes and convulsions of nature, and inducing mice and men to leave the centers of natural disaster. I.e.  voice is subconsciously perceived by listeners as frightened with the corresponding attitude to his owner.  

We recollect all,  that was forgotten

 In order, that  in a critical situation “to recollect all” and even that, which one  forget a long time ago or happened to hear: first thing- it is necessary to change for  one’s "natural" pitch  of  voice, which removes as a whole the overexcitation of cerebral cortex. The second thing - to reduce loudness of the basic tone up to natural, which  adjusts  Broca's center for optimal work. This point  is especially important for stammering people. The third - to increase force of pectoral overtones, which  results  to activation of the "intellectual" beta-rhythm of  brain, responsible for memory and decision-making. In our center we train in this technique by means of visualization of the major   speech characteristics. And everyone can be trained to show resistance  in the most intense and responsible situations to which, undoubtedly, examinations are related.  

All aforesaid concerns not only our patients, who have the experience of elimination of stuttering in our center, but also those people, who have blocks at performances before the audience, who cannot recollect, what and  in what order to speak, though they  know a material perfectly. We have developed the special program for them.

Peter SINKOVSKY