Gender-specific speech centers in the brain- a cause for speech impediments?

[Sincerely Tegan]

Hi all!

I recently read that biological males and females each use a different part of their brain for speech. I grew up with a stutter, and though most people I now know have no idea I've ever had trouble with speech, I still struggle over certain sounds and syllables at times; I've just gotten better at masking the effort, or at substituting words that I already know are going to trip me up.

Anyway, considering that the trans community is full of people who identify differently from their given biology, I was wondering if this incongruity between brain and body might end up crossing a few wires in our brains, and be a cause for stutters and other such speech difficulties. What do you think? Is there a connection between being trans, and having speech impediments or problems?

Weigh in with your personal accounts, or with research that you've found. This was just a stray thought I had, and I wanted to explore it.

Looking forward to hearing your responses.

Cheers,
Tegan

[LivingTheDream]

I've never done any research about this or if this counts or if it is just a coincidence or not, but I had to go to speech class in elementary school. I still talk really fast and mumble, in fact, just found out that one of my therapists that I had just started to see "dumped" me because she couldn't read my lips very good (she deaf).

[Sincerely Tegan]

Well, I've heard that people who are naturally left-handed, but forced to be right-handed sometimes are plagued with dyslexic symptoms afterwords. In other words, the brain knows what it wants to do, and forcing it to do the opposite really gums up the works, so to speak. So, if we can at least partially attribute some cases and forms of dyslexia with something as simple as ignoring your natural dominant side, then I wonder how much our speech is affected by gender incongruity, considering that our bodies and brains are not even in agreement over where our speech centers are.

Again, just musing.

-Teg

[JoanneB]

I stuttered really bad when I was younger. So bad as a kid it was a big factor in a lot of the teasing and self esteem issues that plagued me for most of my life. I still see myself as that kid to this day. Even though no one in my TG group  can believe I ever did.

Occasionally under extreme emotional stress I will. I think part of why I don't sort is training like you said. I do tended to avoid the types of sounds that will trip me up , or even psych myself up ahead of time to get through saying that word. Maybe it is at an unconscious level now?

[immortal gypsy]

Don't know if this counts.  I have a lisp (side note who was the bright spark to put a sp sound in that word). It becomes more apparent the more hyper and excited I become (so generally you can always here it). Some words are just impossible to get out of my mouth no matter how calm I am, so I've had to compensate by using similar but easier to pronuce words.  In today's non reading non cross-word world I either sound like I'm being smart or just plain difficult to understand.

But on the other hand one of my brothers had a serve speach impediment and needed therapy to correct it. I'm the one undergoing transition and he is not.

[Sincerely Tegan]

Don't know if this counts.  I have a lisp (side note who was the bright spark to put a sp sound in that word). It becomes more apparent the more hyper and excited I become (so generally you can always here it). Some words are just impossible to get out of my mouth no matter how calm I am, so I've had to compensate by using similar but easier to pronuce words.  In today's non reading non cross-word world I either sound like I'm being smart or just plain difficult to understand.

But on the other hand one of my brothers had a serve speach impediment and needed therapy to correct it. I'm the one undergoing transition and he is not.

Interesting. I'm not at all implying, by the way, that speech impediments are a sign that one is trans; I was pondering whether our impediments-your lisp, my stutter (which only comes when I'm really tired, stressed, or excited)- may be blamed even partially on our trans condition.

Thanks for sharing!

-Teg

[immortal gypsy]

Oh that last comment about my brother was more for the Dr .Google people out there who like to check off all the symptoms and say this is me.

I also literally see the world through rose colored glasses.  Now while studies are inconclusive it helps with dyslexia (I'm not tested), they can and do help people read as they are not looking at bright white piece of paper (I'm photophobic). Also I'm ambidextrous friends of mine who like you have been thinking musing about this sometimes look at me as their poster child

[Sincerely Tegan]

Oh that last comment about my brother was more for the Dr .Google people out there who like to check off all the symptoms and say this is me.

I also literally see the world through rose colored glasses.  Now while studies are inconclusive it helps with dyslexia (I'm not tested), they can and do help people read as they are not looking at bright white piece of paper (I'm photophobic). Also I'm ambidextrous friends of mine who like you have been thinking musing about this sometimes look at me as their poster child

My word, you're just action-packed with stuff, aren't you, Gypsy?

Interesting- I'm partially ambi. I write and do anything requiring precision with my left hand, but do anything requiring strength (like throwing) with my right. But then, I bowl left-handed, which requires a bit of strength. Honestly, when I'm trying out a new activity people think I'm nuts because I don't know whether I'm left or right-handed in those moments.

Poster child, huh? Well, may I say that it would make a lovely poster.

Cheers,
Teg

[DriftingCrow]

Yeah, I had a bit of a stutter and speech problems (I went to speech therapy for years, and I still say things wrong. I have trouble with properly saying r, w, d, th,and my -ed comes out like -it. I have to really think about tongue placement when I speak. It's quite noticeable, and it's definitely not just my New England accent). I really think part of my speech problems though is caused from some sort of brain trauma. When I was only a few days old, I got punched on the head. I have a dent in my skull in the spot where I was punched. I ended up having a seizure problem afterwards that lasted a few years, and now sometimes I get bad headaches where I start seeing crap and I forget things easily (though,those last two could be from the 11 or so concussions I've had).

Like others above, I am also somewhat ambidextrous. I started out right-handed then moved over to left (left-handed wasn't natural, I taught myself to be left-handed in kindergarten. Maybe I just wanted to be different?  <--which is something I think about, do I just want to be a guy to be someone other than myself?), my right handed writing doesn't look too bad even though I never write with my right-hand anymore, and certain things I do with my right hand only. Many things I do with both.


Though, it's common for cis-people to have speech problems too, or be ambidextrous. My older cis-sister stuttered really bad when she was a kid, my speech therapist actually said that my stutter was because I was copying her. I think being trans would have more of an affect on our speech's tone, level, speed, stuff that makes you sound more like a guy or girl, rather than being a cause of speech impediments.