The Telegraph reported this week on the case of a mum originally from Birmingham who has recently acquired a French accent following a period of ill health. The article is available to read here:
Mrs Royston, who now lives in Kent but has always spoken with a normal Birmingham accent, developed a severe bout of flu that caused seizures. Doctors were initially baffled as they could find no obvious cause for the seizures and stroke-like symptoms that Mrs Royston was displaying. She temporarily lost her speech and language abilities, and when they did begin to return, Mrs Royston found that she was not speaking in her normal accent, but had instead adopted an accent that sounded much more like French.
Following assessment by a specialist Speech and Language Therapist, Mrs Royston was diagnosed with Foreign Accent Syndrome. Professor Nick Miller, an expert in motor speech disorders from Newcastle University, states that: “Foreign Accent Syndrome can be caused by either a neurological problem, such as an injury to the brain, or for some psychological reasons like depression or major psychoses might be the origin. Integrated Treatment Services has previously reported on the case of Kay Russell, who also began speaking with a French accent following a severe migraine:
https://integratedtreatmentservices.co.uk/news/item/2/84/foreign-accent-syndrome/This article describes in-depth why Kay sounds French, and how this has as much to do with the listener’s perception of her accent as that of her own altered speech sounds, rhythm and intonation patterns.
Mrs Royston reports that she has never been to France and that she feels that by losing her Birmingham accent she has lost part of her identity. She has received intensive speech and language therapy to support her language difficulties that co-occurred with her speech (accent) difficulties. Foreign Accent Syndrome remains very rare throughout the world and as such there is very little research or therapy treatment options available. However Mrs Royston reports that learning to laugh about her condition and joke with her family has helped her come to terms with the change.
If you think that a friend or relative may benefit from speech and language therapy, Integrated Treatment Services could be of help. Contact us here:
https://integratedtreatmentservices.co.uk/contact-us/enquiry
Sarah Bennington, February 2012
Written on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services. Integrated Treatment Services is a private Speech and Language Therapy service based in Leicestershire and the East Midlands. It specialises in providing highly-skilled Speech and Language Therapists, but also associates with other therapeutic professionals, including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists and Arts Therapists.
