Is your child speaking too soft? Too loudly?
- Apr 2, 2021
- 3 min read
Some kids, commonly among girls, speak in soft volumes. This may be due to cultural reasons that being soft-spoken is to be polite.
It is common for family members to be aware of their child's speech issues, so notice around, has your child been constantly told to be quiet? Soft-spoken? Do you often tell them 'speak up!'? The same goes with loud volumes, do they speak in greater volume than others kids?
If the volume is low, it affects other's understanding of their speech. The same goes the other way, some kids speak loud.
This can also be applied to children with Autism Spectrum characterized by their inability to respond suitably to different social contexts (Association, 2013). Speaking too soft or loud is a sign of difficulty in adjusting to a certain social situation (Edgerton & Wine, 2017).
I have been seeing a 6-year-old girl during placement her voice was so soft that it affected that intelligibility (the degree of one's speech is understood/considered intelligible). I remember vividly having a conversation with her in the outdoor playground, there were these 30 seconds where I heard nothing but a mumbling of words. I was almost shocked. it was as difficult as finding a way out in a dark deep tunnel blindfolded. Note that a shy child can speak with normal volume; a child who is not shy can have a gentle voice.
*If your child is speaking loud most of the time, it is wise to have their hearing checked.
Visual Volume Meter
This would be ideal for younger toddlers. Here we are using metaphorical cues e.g. lion represents a loud outdoor sound. The following will be explained using a volume meter created by us!
Download your volume meter today!
Explain why it is important to have appropriate loudness e.g. if we are speaking too soft, others cannot hear and understand us. If we are speaking too loud, it makes others scared and terrified.
Discuss each animal character and what they represent.
Discuss situations where we have to speak at a certain loudness level.
Practice speaking with words with different loudness!
Practice speaking with words with different loudness!
Volume Meter Applications
For your older kids who are no longer interested in cartoons or stickers, using a volume meter app is fantastic. This is a form of biofeedback - a powerful therapy technique using visual/auditory methods for individuals to gain control of involuntary bodily functions such as voice or movement of your tongue when vocalizing. This helps kids to acknowledge their voice being soft and that they have concrete feedback as to what degree their volume should be.
Feel free to try this with kids too! A great way would be to incorporate our visual volume meter in this part as well to manage each loudness level, all the instructions are in our visual volume meter!
Volume meter software can help shape one's volume (Edgerton & Wine, 2017).
Here are great examples:
Speak Up: An SLP Meter is a great and children-friendly tool, only available free on google play.
Voice Meter Pro, costs $7.99 on the Apple app store, was used in research (Edgerton & Wine, 2017).
An average decibel (dB) when speaking at conversational level/reading should be 60-65 dB. An average of 80db or above is loud, an average of 50 or below is too low.
References:
Association, A. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5®). American Psychiatric Publishing.
Edgerton, L., & Wine, B. (2017). Speak Up: Increasing Conversational Volume in a Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Behavior analysis in practice, 10(4), 407–410. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0168-2
This might not be a detailed blog but it will at least give you an idea of ways to manage our children's speaking volume. It is extremely important considering that our speech volume impacts our intelligibility. It is also important in social participation and establishing relationships.
Have a great day and don't forget to smile!
Joyce Lau
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