Mumbling is a pattern of speech that results from sounds being heard as “jumbled together” or unclear. Maybe the mouth doesn’t open enough, or the voice doesn’t project the speech well enough, or maybe a person has a tendency to talk faster at times, particularly when they’re nervous. This can impact the ability of someone to be understood one-on-one, in small groups, in large groups, giving presentations, or out socializing in noisy environments.

Enunciation is similar to mumbling in that it impacts how well someone understands you. More specifically however, enunciation training is designed to be sure the areas of your speech that make it difficult to understand you are optimized. This could mean the quality or accuracy of your vowels, the way you say some of your consonants, or even some other speech patterns that many people develop if English wasn’t their first language. An example of this might be how stress on a particular syllable of a word is achieved in someone’s first language vs. how it is stressed in English.

Accent Expansion at TASC is a combination of articulation and enunciation training that is designed to be ethically respectful of our clients’ wide-range of backgrounds. Many clients are sick and tired of hearing “Can you repeat that?” or being asked, “Where are you from?” While we never set to completely get rid of an accent with our clients, we do work on optimizing their speech to improve their confidence and increase their feelings of success every time they communicate.

Assertiveness is an often misunderstood but highly effective way to communicate in almost every situation. Assertiveness focuses on making sure that you achieve your desired outcomes (to the best of your ability) in a variety of different situations. This could be in situations such as giving feedback or criticism, negotiating a contract, sharing your point of view, communicating with difficult people, or even just learning to say “No” in some situations. It is possible to learn how to actively communicate assertively even when you may feel like being more passive or aggressive.

Interviewing is a skill that is often underdeveloped in even some of the top MBA graduate programs. At its core, interviewing is about communicating effectively and adapting appropriately. Skills like assertiveness, enunciation training, voice training, and improving fluency all play a role in making you a successful interviewee. In addition, learning the social communication strategies that can make an interview feel more like a conversation than an interrogation is often overlooked but even MORE important for successful interviewing.

Networking and Small Talk are grouped together here because they often borrow communication skills from each other. At the core of good networking and small talk is an understanding of pragmatics in communication- which means social habits or behaviours we use when communicating. How can we initiate a conversation effectively? How does our body language or tone of voice influence someone’s first impression? How do we interject respectfully to have our voice heard in small groups? How do we effectively introduce ourselves? How do we keep a conversation going when it may be necessary but we feel we have lost interest? How do we end a conversation gracefully and on good terms? It is possible to answer these and other questions you may have in order to master your skills in networking and small talk.

Our Voice is our acoustic fingerprint. It is uniquely ours and yet can sometimes not authentically represent who we are in certain situations. Some people have adapted speaking voices that they feel “don’t sound like them” or “change or fatigue throughout the day.” Other people report having difficulty controlling their voices in situations where they are anxious, upset, excited- and this can result in changes in their voices that do not accurately reflect, for example, their confidence in their material for a presentation or position in an argument. It is possible through voice training to improve your mastery over your voice as an instrument and command control through even the most difficult situations. To read more about our voice therapy services at TASC, click here.

Leading and Managing a Team can often feel like a thankless job. Strong personalities are drawn into these leadership roles and sometimes they find their greatest challenge is in their communication. People misunderstand their tone or language in person or over email; they are often asked to repeat themselves because of an accent or lack of voice projection; they have difficulty communicating assertively when conflict arises; they have trouble motivating their team; or they may even have difficulty advocating for their team to the “higher-ups.” Communication training can improve awareness and skills in areas such as enunciation or accent modification, assertiveness, presentations skills, concise speech, and even voice quality to ensure effective leadership is not just a skill you know you have, but a skill you are able to communicate.

Presentations Skills are another area for professionals who are well-educated that often gets neglected in higher-level education. To feel comfortable communicating to a group is one thing. There are great programs to help develop and reduce presentation anxiety such as Toastmasters or even improv classes. Presentation skills however, are the functional and practical skills you need to be able to present your ideas effectively whether you need to present to one person or to an auditorium full of people. Presentation skills training at TASC can be a combination of areas such as social communication training, enunciation and voice projection training, assertiveness training and even fluency or concise speech generation. Then there’s how to effectively adapt or respond to spontaneous shifts in topic or questions from the audience. We’ve got you covered here at TASC and are fully-prepared to design an individualized program just for your needs.

Many adults find themselves in situations where they want to improve the efficacy and flexibility of their Vocabulary in both professional and social environments. From a language perspective, this can sometimes mean that a person who doesn’t speak English as their first language feels the need to improve their language use in a more functional way than some language courses can teach. For native English speakers, they may find that their ability to say the word they need when they need it is sometimes slower or less effective than they require. By adapting the principles scientific literature tells us help people acquire language faster and improve storage and retrieval of words, it is possible for a speech-language pathologist to help improve someone’s functional vocabulary.

Fluency of Speech refers to how smoothly or easily a person communicates. In many cases, a person may not be a person who stutters (find more information about our stuttering therapy here) but finds that they use a lot of filler words, have trouble retrieving words fast enough, or have difficulty with spontaneous or “on-the-spot” speaking. Whatever the challenge may be that is preventing your speech from being as fluent as you need, a speech-language pathologist can help teach you the skills you need to overcome dysfluency and communicate clearly and authentically.

Speaking Concisely can sometimes feel like a nebulous goal. We often feel that the way we think and communicate is fixed or “just how it is.” If we prepare enough, sometimes we are successful. But sometimes, that isn’t enough. The truth is that adults can learn to adapt and modify their communication for a variety of different situations. This includes improving how clearly you are able to communicate an idea in a time crunch, when anxious, or any other instance where you don’t necessarily have time to plan out everything you want to say. Have your voice heard- the first time.

Communicating in Conflict is one of the greatest challenges both in personal and professional lives. Often, our communication is heavily influenced by our emotions or our desire to avoid confrontation. The result? Ineffective management of conflict that can lead to tense working and professional relationships as well as recurrent issues. At TASC, we leave the psychology behind managing conflict up to the psychologists and psychotherapists. We work with our clients on the functional skills they need so that while they acknowledge a particular uncomfortable feeling, they are still able to be pragmatic and effective with their speech, language, and communication in a variety of tense or uncomfortable situations.

Negotiation is a skill that at its core involves understanding human behaviour, but more specifically, how humans react to communication. Effective negotiation means using all of your communication tools (e.g. speech, language, voice, non-verbals) in a way that acknowledges how to effectively interact or get the reaction you want from a person you are negotiating with. Just like the people you communicate with; every negotiation is unique. This means learning to be adaptable and efficient with a variety of communication skills so you can be ready for any situation.

Before you even open your mouth, your body can betray your intention. Non-Verbal Communication plays a critical role in effective professional communication and understanding its impact on the perspectives of people around you can change how they communicate with you. Whether it be a first impression at a new job or networking event, or discussing difficult topics with a leadership team- almost every interaction is influenced by what we communicate through not saying a word. By working with a speech-language pathologist to understand and optimize your non-verbal communication, you can improve the ease and success of your interactions before you even speak.

Is a communication skill you want to develop not listed? Is there a specific situation that you want to know if communication training can help with? Contact us or book your 25-minute Initial Consultation with our speech-language pathologist to find out how we might be able to help. Access our convenient online booking portal here.