General Strategies to Promote Using an Appropriate Speech Rate
The following are general recommendations for decreasing a student's speech rate:
1. Mirror
A mirror is a great aid when working on enunciation of speech sounds. When you're enunciating properly, your mouth/tongue/lips/jaw move.
Have the student stand in front of the mirror and watch him/herself saying a specific sentence. Have him/her watch the lips move (e.g., purse and retract when saying the word "go-ing"), tongue move, jaw move, etc.
Say other sentences aloud, watching as he/she speaks in the mirror. Now, have him/her say them all again, slowing down the speech rate and exaggerating the facial movements required for each of the sounds.
2. Using a Speech Monitor
One of the best ways to determine whether or not a student is properly enunciating when he/she speaks may be to enlist a speech monitor. Ask the speech monitor to tell the student whenever he/she isn't speaking clearly. Keep track of how often the speech monitor tells the student he/she is speaking too fast and didn't articulate the sounds precisely.
3. Phrasing
Another way to slow down a student's speech rate is to concentrate on phrasing. Oral speech is composed of phrases and sentences. People who speak too quickly tend to ignore phrasing. They don't pause for commas, hyphens, question marks, or even periods (natural breaks in the conversation). This causes all the phrases to slur together. Therefore, concentrating on the phrasing can really help slow down fast speakers.
4. Comprehension of the Listener - Activity
During this task, the listener is to comprehend what the student is saying and give him/her feedback about speech rate. As the speaker, his/her task is to tell how to do something in 5 steps. The student can jot down these 5 steps on a piece of paper so he/she has some speaking points. Next, the student tells the listener how to do something (e.g., How to Make a Sandwich, How to Brush Your Teeth, How to Tie Your Shoes, etc.).
When the student is finished speaking, the listener can repeat the 5 steps described. Did the listener comprehend all 5 steps? If not, why? Did the student speak too quickly
5. Reading Aloud
Have the student slow down his/her rate of speech while reading a passage. The student should try to pronounce each word as correctly and precisely as he/she can.
Another individual can be used to point to the words to be read by the student in the book. By having another individual do this, they pace the reading for the student by imposing a slow rate with "appropriate" pausing and phrasing. The student can be instructed to follow the imposed rhythm set by the other individual.
As the student becomes more proficient at controlling his/her speech rate, the cueing gesture can be faded by gradually diminishing it and then ultimately eliminating it.
6. Tape or Video Recording
Record the student using his or her current speech rate and then using a slower, more appropriate speech rate. Afterwards, discuss the differences between the two patterns. Reinforce the notion that using clear, slow speech patterns will increase others’ ability to understand him/her when s/he speaks.
The student can practice his/her pronunciation by using a tape or video recording to record him/herself reading a book, reading a passage, or speaking to a classmate.
After recording his/her speech, the student and another individual can listen to the tape and determine how easily understood the student was based on his/her speech rate.
7. Pacing Board/Metronome/Hand Tapping
The student can be given a pacing board. A pacing board is a board that contains squares or dots in a row. The student would be asked to touch one square/dot per syllable of each word or one square/dot per entire word while speaking. This would help the student slow down his/her speech rate when speaking to others.
Also, a metronome can be used while the student is reading a passage. The student can read a word per beat of the metronome to slow down his/her rate of speech.
The hand tapping method is used the same way as the metronome. The student would tap his/her hand on something (e.g., desk, leg, other hand, etc.) for each word being said. For the hand tapping method, they would need to be taught an appropriate speed for hand tapping. Another individual can initially be used to model the appropriate speed for them. This individual can be faded out gradually.