There are two main areas of problems that are apparent with the speech that are associated with this condition, these are the motor system (early articulation and phonological difficulties and fluency disorders such as stuttering) and the speech-language interface (developmental aphasia-type problems). This means that these people will have difficulty with the level of clarity their speech and have issues with some of their phonics. Aphasia is a communication disorder that Is caused by damage to parts of the brain that contain language. This cause difficulties in speaking, listening, reading and writing, however this does not affect someone's intelligence.
Diction - This is the style of speech, It includes the accent, quality and intonation that a person has. It focus on the way that someone pronounces particular vowels and consonant, mostly "d"s, "t"s and "s"s. Some people with downs syndrome has difficulty with their diction, therefore singing techniques to improve this could help them with their quality of speech over time.
Ways to improve diction?
- When singing a scale apply constant sounds such as "d", "k" and "t"
- Singing doh, ray, me, far, so, la, te, doh.
- Making a "brr" sound before singing to warm up.
- Singing different tounge twisters.
- - This will help the children have a higher quality of speech over time if they continue to do this over a long period of time. This is done by building up the muscle memory in someone's vocal anatomy making it easier for someone to speak more clearly. This can improve their communication skills, which can help them do things like go to job interviews and public speaking. This in turn allows them to feel more confident when speaking.
Articulation - This is similar to diction in some ways as in it focuses on the different ways you use our voice, including legato which is smooth and staccato which is sharp. It focuses on the ay that the voice makes individual sounds and includes stress, rhythm and intonation.
Source: Boundless. “Articulation and Pronunciation.” Boundless Communications. Boundless, 21 Jul. 2015. Retrieved 17 Nov. 2015 from https://www.boundless.com/communications/textbooks/boundless-communications-textbook/delivering-the-speech-12/effective-vocal-delivery-64/articulation-and-pronunciation-257-7089/
http://jaydeecastlee.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/friday-14th-november-2014-singing.html 10/11/15
http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/video/vocal-warm-up-4-articulation - 17/11/15
