Nina -- I use a system remarkably similar to Marty's plan, except
I crush Halls mentho-lyptus lozenges up and put just a small piece
in my mouth every now and then. This helps keep my mouth moist,
and my throat open. It has a very refreshing feeling, especially
for my often occluded nasal passages. I have terrible allergies
which clog my nasal passages, and the little pieces of menthol
lozenges helps keep things open and breezy. (Cherry flavor, of
course.)
Also, our friend Dr. Stan likes to sip on green tea to keep his
throat moist and loose. The swallowing keeps is relaxing to the
speaking muscles.
Susan Fulton likes to sip hot beverages (I think I read this on
her web page.... or was it Larry's page...) and this confirms
what Dr. Stan does. (I cannot recall the reasons why he likes
green tea over black teas...)
A speech pathologist I know says you should turn your head and do
various stretching exercises, like shrugging shoulders, etc. She
also recommends blinking hard, and scrunching your eyes for ten
seconds, and then letting all go loose and relaxed. This is
great for neck tension and to avoid headaches that occur from
concentrating on something too long - like looking at your
computer screen.
I am a member (District Governor, in fact) of National AMBUCS
(AMerican BUsiness Clubs) which is dedicated to create greater
independence for disabled persons. As such, I meet many physical
therapists. Many of these therapists have recommended taking
periodic relaxation sessions away from work - mostly doing the
scrunch-relax tension relieving exercises the speech pathologist
recommends. This relaxation is essential to enduring long
dictation sessions.
Breathing from the bottom of the belly - from the sternum as
singers do - is very helpful.
I remember the old days of discrete recognition (when we had to
pause between each word before moving on to the next word) I would
become tired because I had to hold my breath during the speaking
session in order to effectuate the pause required between each
word, and this became very difficult, because after awhile, I
would get out of breath and have to stop to breathe for a little
while before moving on. From your description, I think you are
experiencing a similar phenomenon .
The continuous speech programs now available are a real blessing.
Speaking in phrases will help you a great deal, allowing you to
alternate between breathing, speaking several words, and then
breathing again before moving on. This will not only help you
breath regularly, but the program is more accurate when you speak
in phrases of many words, rather than in separate words, giving it
more context to work with.
I suspect you might speak too quickly, as well, trying to get your
work done in an efficient, speedy manner. It is, in my experience,
important to slow down and speak very deliberately, but not in an
unnatural manner, in order to enunciate each word clearly and
completely before moving on to the next word. As you have
observed, doing this is more work, and requires more effort to
slow down and speak in a predictable, even manner. Nevertheless,
you should only speak while breathing out, and take time to pause
between various sentences and phrases to catch your breath.
Alternating breathing and speaking in a rhythm is often helpful
for those with speech problems. You may, however, have to slow
down just a bit and it might take you just a little longer to
finish your project, but you will not be as tired when you are
finished, and you might see greater accuracy from the speech
engine, as well. Pacing oneself seems to be an important
ingredient for many users.
Anyway, just a few thoughts on the problem of getting tired while
speaking for long periods of time.
[ I just noticed that I am indicating this using ViaVoice to
dictate into DragonPad. I had both programs running to solve a
problem for a another user and it did not realize I was using one
program to speak into the other!]
Happy trails to you. /// Richards ///
_______________________________________________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Markoe" <martin@speechcontrol.com>
To: "'Nina Marie Casper'" <ninamariecasper@prodigy.net>;
<viavoice@yahoogroups.com>; <spk2wrt@edc.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 7:10 PM
Subject: RE: [ViaVoice] voice strain-breath control-cross post
> Nina wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> it took me no more than 30 minutes - maybe less (more like
15-30), however,
> it was as if my vocal chords were developing a muscle cramp.
(Special
> dietary needs limit when I can eat and drink, [as well as sugar
and
> candy]) - but yes, I try to get adequate liquid into my day on a
regular
> basis (48-64 oz of water usually).
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> When I need to dictate for long periods I put a small piece of
sugarless gum
> under my tongue. It keeps everything inside nice and moist.
>
> Martin Markoe, eMicrophones, Inc.
> The best microphones for Speech Recognition
> See us at: http://www.eMicrophones.com
> See, "Key Steps to High Speech Recognition Accuracy" at:
> http://www.emicrophones.com/articles/Keys_to_dictation.asp
>
>
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>
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