Since my little stroke I have been working with a speech therapist. He has had me doing all sorts of lip exercises and reading Dr. Seuss tongue-twister books aloud. My pronunciation and intonation are basically back to normal.
As a result of the lip exercises, I can now sneer and curl my lip! I guess I never felt the need for those expressions before because it took me several weeks of work to be able to lift my upper lip — not because of the stroke, but because I’ve never used my upper lip that way. I still can only do it reliably by looking in a mirror.
What still hasn’t gotten much better is my singing ability. So yesterday I had my first session with a “voice” therapist as opposed to my “speech” therapist. I felt my voice was different than before and she confirmed that it is, indeed, just a bit lower than would be expected.
Then they looked at my vocal cords while I made various noises (having a tube threaded through my nose was a bit disconcerting, but not painful). Sure enough, one side is just not working as well as the other. I now have my first month of voice sessions set up. They seem to think whatever is wrong is fixable. It would be very nice to be able to sing along to songs again without cringing at the sound I produce!
Tuples and Attributes 