Mrs. Tongue Does Her Housework

An effective sequence of tongue exercises for articulation with an accompanying story that kids of all ages will enjoy. (With a printable)

Today is one of THOSE days - an uppercase day. It began ordinarily enough with my to-do list on my left by my keyboard and my coffee, black, on my right.

The list was long: a string of cryptic notes - names of people I had things to talk to about, references to web pages on my site I wanted to update, ideas for personal writing I intend to do… Fortunately, the coffee was strong.

This newsletter was at the top of the list. I’d already decided what I’d highlight - a particularly effective series of tongue exercises for articulation. What I hadn’t thought through was what the page would trigger - the memory lane it would lead me down.

Suddenly, there was my mother-in-law: vibrant, generous and passionate about crisp, clean articulation and pronunciation. She was a speech and drama teacher renowned in her community for her expertise, for her enthusiasm, and for her willingness to share what she knew.

I got the exercises and the accompanying story (Mrs. Tongue Does Her Housework) from her years ago.

I remember her using them to great effect with students whose primary language was not English.

I also remember her doing the exercises for herself after she had a stroke and could no longer speak clearly. Appalling for a person for whom the spoken word had been paramount from childhood. With an enormous effort of sustained will and determination, she did it. She retrained her bumbling tongue.

With love, and in her honor, I give you: Mrs. Tongue Does Her Housework. May your ‘ts’ and ‘ds’ be forever stumble free.

Until next time,
Happy teaching, happy speaking,

Susan

PS. As I said last week, and I’ll say next, if you have ideas for topics you’d like to see covered in this newsletter, or if you’d like to share an article on some aspect of public speaking, or a speech of your own, please get in touch. Either reply to this email or contact me through the form on my about me page on my website. I’d love to hear from you!