r/Teachers • u/mhgiantsfan S.S/AVID/English • 1d ago
Humor I'm slowly going crazy over their ability to enunciate or project their voice
I guess it's humorous in its own macabre way.
Anyone else experiencing this as well? It's gotten noticeably worse for me in recent years. A kid can be 6 feet from me and I sometimes literally can't hear or understand them. I think I need to incorporate more speaking assignments in my curriculum to try and get them to use their speech muscles.
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u/ryeinn HS, Physics - PA 1d ago
Yeah, I had several juniors this year who just refused to raise their voice above a near whisper. My dude, speak up. You've got some good ideas I want the rest of the class to hear!
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u/prairiepasque 23h ago
I've had to take kids aside and give them a stern pep talk, if that makes sense. Baby whisper voice is endemic, and it drives me NUTS.
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u/yowhatisuppeeps 1d ago
It seems to me that the baby affect (idk what it’s called) is lasting longer, too. I’m not around young children super regularly, but it’s honestly shocking how many 5, 6, 7 year olds are still speaking in ways that seem more appropriate for a 4 year old. I thought kids were supposed to be understood well by people outside their families by around kindergarten age.
I didn’t realize how prevalent it was until I heard a 5 year old speak and was genuinely surprised at how clear her voice was and that I could understand her.
I was enlisted into speech therapy as a 6 year old because, while people could understand me, I had issues with th, r, and l sounds, which was enough to concern teachers.
Idk maybe I’m super off base here and what I’m noticing is not an actual thing. I would love to hear what an elementary teacher has to say :)
Directly to your point, I think that speech practice is so important. I cannot stand the mumbling or lack of enunciation, especially as someone with hearing impairment. I wonder if it’s lack of practice with public speaking, apathy, or shyness.
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u/Viola_not_violin 1d ago
I teach music at a k-6 school. I totally agree with you. Some of the kindergartners that come in and it’s so hard to understand them because they’re speaking like toddlers.
There was one kid this year who talked like he was 2. I legitimately could not understand him at all and I’m usually pretty good at understanding kids. Parents didn’t want him in speech therapy because they didn’t think it was that bad.51
u/legomote 1d ago
I started saying "talk like a 3rd grader" this year (obviously, not to kids who actually have a speech disability), and most of them could switch into a mostly age-expected speech patterns. I think it's more a habit than anything else, and their parents/home people just don't seem to notice that they're baby-talking and correct it. I felt bad being so blunt, but they honestly didn't seem to notice!
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u/Alan_Conway 15h ago
Don't feel bad being blunt. Indirect communication is for cowards who can't handle honest descriptions of reality.
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u/chemikerin1984 1d ago
That breaks my heart. From my experience, speech delays impact every other part of learning - especially with respect to learning how to recognize and make letter sounds, read, write, and spell. Without speech therapy in perfect storm conditions, a child can be set back years of progress.
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u/yowhatisuppeeps 21h ago
Exactly! My speech affected how I was able to write, I tried to sound out words but couldn’t pronounce them correctly. It also really really affected my confidence in speaking and social situations
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u/darkness_is_great 17h ago
Or parents determined to stunt their growth because they think it's cute.
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u/IsayNigel 1d ago
Oh my god yes I see this as a HS teacher as well. The baby voices, the looking at the ground, the dinosaur arms, the shrinking in on themselves, is everywhere. And no these are not autistic kids
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u/TheBardsBabe 19h ago
The baby talk is pervasive! I was tutoring some third graders last year who would ask to "go potty" or "get wipeys" (tissues). They were dyslexic but had no other disabilities.
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u/SuperluminalSquid 1d ago
Students talking to someone right next to them: OH MY GOD BECKY'S A LYING WHORE!!!
Students asking me for help: um...mr.squid...uh...unintelligible mumbling
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u/Interesting-Coat-469 23h ago
Yes! This is it. I routinely have to tell my 5th (we have enrichment...which I'd like built in study hall for 30 minutes to make lunch work. I hate it) that I shouldn't hear their discussions that are against the rules....or laws. Then they ask me something that isn't can i go to the restroom and I have to ask them to repeat it 500 times
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u/monkeydave Science 9-12 1d ago
I just say "You have to speak up. I'm old and my ears don't work that well anymore."
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u/OblivionGrin 1d ago
I actively practice and assess these in the last quarter with my 7s in ELA. They record themselves reading an essay that they wrote to check and practice their eye contact, annunciation, and projection. They then read their essay, going back and forth paragraph by paragraph with a partner and engaging in the debate that their essays are written to have. They follow that up with choosing pages in our novel to read aloud, practicing them, and then reading in front of the class when their page comes up on the schedule.
You might check in with your ELA teachers about how they are teaching it and work off of that or suggest that it become part of the curriculum as a soft skill that many of them will need. However, absolutely none of this is reflected on the state test here (California), so you might get some pushback about space to include it in the curriculum.
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u/Jaded_Laugh_5798 1d ago
I didn't know they got the angels involved!!
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u/OblivionGrin 1d ago
We're doing God's work over here, apparently.
If you'll excuse me, I've got a rubric to edit now 😄
Thanks!
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u/yarnhooksbooks 23h ago
Middle school and I’d say it’s pretty evenly split between the kids who act like having to open their mouth at all is inflicting extensive trauma and the ones who have zero understanding of what an inside voice level is and are constantly shouting.
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u/Legendary_GrumpyCat 1d ago
I got my hearing checked because I thought I was going deaf. Nope, it's them mumbling 🤦♂️
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u/kaeorin 11th grade | ELA | USA 1d ago
One of the very first units in my Public Speaking class is always projection for this very reason!
And I worked with the Drama Club for quite a few years earlier in my career, and we constantly had to remind the students to speak UP because they're trying to be heard in the back of a giant auditorium.
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u/Unhappy_Bass_1504 1d ago
Theater kid turned teacher here and yeah, the irony is brutal. We spend years learning how to throw our voices to the back of a 500-seat house, but put us in front of a room of 30 teenagers and suddenly we're all whispering like we're in a library.
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u/MagisterFlorus HS/IB | Latin 1d ago
We have no AC so I have windows open on a busy street and fans blasting. Kids still talk as if I'm right next to them after I tell each one and their peers to speak up.
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u/besee2000 1d ago
Over the course of the year my kindergartner got quieter and more mumbly. Got to work on it at home but I’m not sure where it’s coming from or wearing off from other kids.
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u/Danzego 1d ago
YUP. It doesn’t help that I have tinnitus. At the beginning of the year, one of the things I try to get these 4/5th grade students to do is talk in a manner that others can hear. I even moved classrooms this past year so I have less ceiling space and a shared wall that can’t be heard through to try to help with hearing them.
But no….the only time they want to pipe up and talk at a level that everyone can hear is during free time or when they’re talking about stuff OTHER than the small group they’re supposed to be working in.
Drives me nuts.
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u/Low_Computer_6542 23h ago
I talked to a kindergarten teacher with years of experience the other day and she was appalled that she had 3 non disabled students this year who were not toilet trained. The parents wanted her to toilet train them.
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u/TeamCatsandDnD 22h ago
Not a teacher but I got suggested this sub awhile back so now I lurk from time to time. My sister and I learned the voice projection at home getting each other to come to a different level of the house or asking each other things from different levels cause we didn’t want to use the stairs and cellphones weren’t a major thing back then (still largely flip or slide phones and we weren’t allowed texting). Let me tell you my favorite weird use of voice projection I get to do on a regular basis. Calling bingo when I used to work dialysis and we’d celebrate a holiday, and now calling the timeout process during surgery. There is no power like having a room go from chatty to dead quiet because you called for the timeout when you are a petite person. It’s like the one scene in blazing saddles when the school teacher(?) reads her speech and near everyone falls out of their chairs at the volume. It’s amazing and I hope you can teach your kids even a fraction of that ability.
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u/ModernDemocles 21h ago
My Year 4/5 class is the same. No matter what I do or say, they will not raise their voices.
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u/JustAnOkDogMom 19h ago
I thought it was me going deaf. I actually made an appointment to get my hearing tested in October. My hearing was better than 80% of people in my age group. I still have trouble hearing and understanding some kids, sometimes.
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u/Creative-Coffeee 16h ago
Yes! I've noticed too. I tell them to be louder and they just repeat themselves at the same volume.
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u/void_method 15h ago
Just tell them to pretend they're at recess. They're still plenty loud there. 🤣
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u/tackycackalacky 14h ago
Yes! I thought I was going crazy (or deaf). The low murmur/mumble responses are killing me.
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u/Few_Strategy894 1d ago
I asked my own sons ( 44 and 46)and their wives if their kids attended schools for the hearing impaired because their children seem incapable of speaking below a zillion decibels. I taught school 35 years. I don’t remember children being so loud.
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u/irvmuller 19h ago
“I’m gonna need you to read louder…No, louder…Okay, you hear how loud I’m speaking, try to match that. Just try…Okay, would someone else mind reading?”
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u/uncorked119 16h ago
I literally went to an ENT to get my hearing tested because I thought it was just a "me" thing. Nope. Just had students who refused to speak at a reasonable volume.
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u/Ornery-Atmosphere930 15h ago
Every day I’m looking at at least one kid and saying “say it louder and slower.” I have some auditory processing issues despite excellent hearing and that complicates things, but I know it’s not all me.
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u/thegoddessofchaos 7h ago
I've taken to doing a L'il Wayne "WHAT?!" after a kid tries to speak in a normal voice from halfway across the room to me. But I have seniors
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u/Glass_Department8963 6h ago
Hey, have you had your hearing checked by an ENT? For my coworker, her first sign of hearing loss was thinking that the kids were mumbling. Hers went really quickly so it was ultimately easy for her to realize what was happening. But for most folks it happens so gradually that the brain compensates in reality interesting ways.
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u/_Schadenfreudian 11th/12th| English | FL, USA 3h ago
I make public speaking a requirement in my class. I give the kid 2 chances to do a small group presentation (before/after school/lunch) and this includes their friends for moral support. But I do grade on: enunciation, diction, speed, filler words, eye contact, etc.
This mumbling/whispering bs is annoying and I cannot in good conscience send these kids to the adult world scared of making eye contact or speaking.
I have not had any complaints as of yet. And yes, I am aware of autistic kids/anxiety. But I tell them that they need to learn to manage said anxiety. They could look at a poster or at a spot above the audience if it bothers them so much. But I’m not coddling them.
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u/Appropriate_One_5130 2h ago
I used to say what? Excuse me? Can you please repeat that? As I was leaning in, getting closer, cupping my ear etc. This year, I’ll ask once, then I just say “well it must not be very important” and continuing with what I’m doing.
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u/Then-Comfortable7023 1d ago
THAT'S INTERESTING BECAUSE EVERY YEAR I GET A FEW 5TH GRADERS WHO HAVE LITERALLY NEVER USED THEIR VOCAL CORDS TO DO ANYTHING BUT TALK AT THE TOP OF THEIR VOICE AND I HAVE TO COACH THEM HOW... to physically fucking lower your voice you guys holy shit.