Abstract
The method of speech trammg described in the following pages has been used successfully with several different species of parrots. In every case it has yielded good results; in a few cases, outstanding results. Speech training can be given to all species of parrots, from cockatiels to macaws. At the very least, you will teach your bird to say, "Hello.' if you establish a good routine of speech training, using my method. It is very important to set realistic goals for the species of parrot that you are attempting to train. In my estimation, some species are limited to short phrases and tunes, while others can achieve multisyllabled phrases and entire sentences. I have had exceptional results with yellow naped and blue crowned Amazons, all species of the large macaws, and fairly good results from jenday conures, lesser Amazon species and many types of cockatoos. The African greys with whom I've worked were very good talkers, but slow to begin as compared to the Amazons.T have also been pleasantly surprised at the verbal aptitude of cockatiels, who are fairly quick studies with clear voices.
First Phrases
When you begin speech training, choose a short phrase with hard consonant and long vowel sounds. I always begin with salutations, such as, "Hi!" or "Hello;' which are appropriate for all birds. The greetings, "Hi!" or "Hello;' should be followed by your parrot's name and this will be the full first phrase. If your bird has a long, multisyllabled name (Mortimer, for example), shorten the name into a one- or two-syllabled nickname. Then teach your parrot, "Hi, Mort!" or "Hi, Morty!"
The first phrase must be easy for the bird to say and have a minimum of syllables. Try to imitate the sound of your bird's natural voice. When speech training cockatiels and conures, I have found that the best results are obtained when I speak to the birds in a very high pitched voice. This duplicates as closely as possible the bird's natural whistling or chattering. I have taught several cockatiels the phrase, "Hi, cutie!" In every case, the words were first heard when the bird was whistling to itself, practicing the new sound. After a while, as the birds became more confident, they could be coaxed to say the words to their image in a mirror and, later, they were taught to say the words on command.
Most Amazon parrots are capable of imitating you; however, I have found that even Amazons learn faster when I duplicate their natural chattering sound. In addition to imitating the birds' natural sound, you can positively affect the birds' rate of verbal acquisition by lending musicality to a phrase. Always accent the first and last words in a phrase, being certain to enunciate each word so that none of the phrase is lost. You may run the words into each other (as though they were one long word), but be certain to stress the consonants and vowels.
Keynotes and The Human Sound
Speech training your pet parrot in your own natural voice especially if you are a man), often results in a bird that does not sound human when it talks. The human sound is accomplished by imitating the birds' voice as you exaggerate the "keynotes" in a phrase. For instance, the last word in any phrase that you teach is a keynote and should be given an upward inflection. Other "keynotes" in a phrase are the first and last letter of the first word in the phrase. The pitch of the middle words in a phrase are also considered to be "keynotes'.' Once you become aware of the "keynotes;' you should try to compose phrases that lend themselves to this approach.
One way of doing this is by composing phrases that are in question form. This makes it easier for you to give a natural upward inflection at the end of a phrase. Another suggestion for utilizing the "keynote" approach is to compose your phrases with either long vowel sounds, such as ''EE'' or hard consonant sounds, such as "T;' "P;' or "D'.' For example, the phrase, "Ahoy, Mate!" uses the hard "T" sound while the phrase, ''Ahoy Matie!'' uses the long "EE." Both of these phrases can be taught with equal success.
Building Phrases
by Adding Syllables
The first phrases that you teach should have just one or two syllables. As the bird progresses, learning and repeating the phrases that you teach, you can add to your parrot's vocabulary by building up the length of your phrases. This is done by adding syllables, one or two at a time. If you have successfully taught your pet to say, "how are you?" which is a three syllable phrase, you may go on to teach something with three, four or five syllables. it is not recommended that you add more than two syllables at a time to any new phrase. An example of building phrases by adding syllables follows. These should be taught in sequence for the best results.
• "Hi!" One syllable.
• "Hello!" Two syllables.
• "How are you?" Three syllables.
• "Got a peanut?" Four syllables.
• "What are you doing?" Five syllables.
• "How 'bout a kiss, Cutie!'' Six syllables.
• "Come up and see me sometime!"
Seven syllables.
• "Corne up and see me sometime, big boy!" Nine syllables.
• Bye, bye! See you later alligator!" Ten syllables.
You can continue to build up the bird's ability to replicate long, involved phrases by using this approach. Teaching Command Speech
Teaching your parrot to speak, on command, implies that you want the bird to repeat a phrase after you. This is different than teaching the bird responsive speech, which implies that your parrot will give an appropriate answer or reply to a question that you ask. To begin teaching command speech, I first teach the bird to say the phrase. Once the parrot is repeating the phrase perfectly, I begin offering food rewards during the speech lesson. I have not found it beneficial to offer food reward when first teaching a new phrase, because most birds are more interested in obtaining the reward than they are in learning a phrase.
Only after the parrot has been repeating the new phrase for two weeks or more do I introduce food reward. Parrots are intelligent enough to associate food reward with repeating a phrase, if you begin to present the reward whenever you hear the bird saying a particular phrase. Offer food reward for only one phrase at a time, or the bird will not understand that you want to hear one particular phrase. To teach the bird to talk on command, saying each phrase that you desire when you want it to, reward for the phrase that you are working on and no other. if you reward all of the bird's speech indiscriminautly, you will encl up with a bird who says the phrase that pleases it the most and very little else. All of the parrots that I have taught to talk show preferences for one or two phrases over the others that it may know.
When beginning to teach command speech, it is not necessary to cut back on the bird's normal ration of feed. What I usually do is stop adding peanuts to the bird's dish, keeping them instead for rewards during the speech lesson. This is effective with most parrots. Some birds may prefer raw corn, or carrot slices or grapes, but I try to have them all work for peanuts. If your parrot takes the peanut from your hand and drops it, you may decide to cut his daily ration into two portions, feeding one half in the morning and the other half in the late afternoon. Most parrots ration themselves in this way, eating some of their food in the morning and letting the rest remain in the feed dish until late in the day. It is not necessary to make your bird hungry to teach it command speech.