INSIDE PERSPECTIVES of AS & Neurodiversity

 

 

 

SPEECH

 

 

·  Late speech. Some autistics or Aspies start talking very late. This need not necessarily be something to be alarmed over. First of all it is more common in boys to develop speech a little later than girls. Second it is no indication of intelligence or capability. Einstein was slow too. As was one of my cousins, who later grew up to be first a geologist and later a successful lawyer.

 

·  Early speech. Some start talking unusually early.

 

   “I started talking very early, about six months old. I never talked ’baby-language’ but correct Swedish with good word variation.”

- Missbutterfly, adult Aspie from Sweden

 

According to mom I was talking rather fluently by the age of one.

- Inger, site-author

 

·  Monotone voice. Some Aspies have a rather monotone voice and speak in a stilted, pedantic style that sounds more like they are giving a lecture than holding a conversation. Some get nick-names like ‘the little professor’ by their peers. This is perfectly normal for the non-passionate, mentally oriented personality type who is more focused on the conveying of information than on how it is delivered and received. However, not every Aspie or autistic has this characteristic; the majority talk just like everyone else. I think it might be more common in male Aspies than in female.

 

   “When I was younger I had a very monotone voice. This tended to put people off, perhaps because they couldn't judge my emotional state. The only time my voice would chance was if I got very angry or sometimes if I was having a lot of fun. This has changed with time, mostly through practice, but my voice is still flatter than most people's.”

 - William, adult Aspie from USA

 

·  Volume control. Some, both male and female, Aspies have difficulties adjusting voice volume & talking speed to suit the situation. Some have a very soft voice that is hard to hear. Others may talk too loudly without realising it.

 

   “I'm less quiet than I used to be but I've always had that problem of talking too quietly for the people around me.”

- Carrie, adult Aspie from USA

 

MUTISM

 

   Many autistics are non-verbal, although you don’t have to be nonverbal to be autistic. Reasons may be:

 

·  Some of the nonverbal autistics who never gain speech may have verbal apraxia due to lacking enough muscle control to use their vocal chords. These individuals may really want to communicate but are unable to. Many cannot even focus their muscles enough to type or write either.

  

   But with sustained and correctly executed Facilitated Communication, these autistics may be helped to communicate. FC has gotten much criticism - some of which may or may not be justified - but I have personally seen it work with mrs Hilke Osika, music therapist, autism expert and mother of 3 severely autistic sons. She is successfully using it with her children here in Sweden, as well as teaching it to others. However, it must be done with someone the child knows and trusts and the Facilitator needs to have the proper training to be able do it the right way (which is supporting and holding against the Communicator’s wrist so as to provide a stable base, not guiding their hand to individual letters on the letter board).

 

   That it really is the autistic’s own thoughts and not the facilitators, has been shown by those autistics who started out with FC and later learned to type on their own and continued writing in the same personal style; some proving to have very deep and profound thoughts and interests! Hilke Osika also reports an instance when she repeatedly spelled a word one way and her son kept spelling it another way when pointing on the FC letter-board. When later consulting a dictionary, it turned out that her son’s spelling was the correct one...

 

   Ergo: difficulties speaking does not necessarily mean that the person cannot think. Many nonverbal autistics have baffled everyone when gaining access to a computer.

 

   “My sister's husband has an adopted sister who was diagnosed as severely retarded when she was young, but after she was adopted her new mother decided that wasn't accurate and fought to have her appropriately tested and when the 'powers that be' finally listened they found that she had problems with speech due to congenital problems with her mouth, muscles in the mouth, and vocal cords but that she was not retarded.  After that, she was able to get her driving permit, then license and now she is an adult, married and has a child.”

- Kathy J, adult Aspie from USA

 

   Or read this story about Free Freya, once considered the most dangerous woman in Sweden and a hopeless case. After a female Swedish scientist took a personal interest in her, it turned out that all she needed was some mental stimulation, a computer and being treated like a human being!

 

   Even Albert Einstein was thought to be somewhat retarded because he started speaking so late. Another of the most brilliant minds on the planet has at times been treated like a mentally disabled person when ALS affected his ability to speak properly, although it was only his muscles malfunctioning, not his mind:

 

   “One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient: Does he take sugar?”

- Stephen Hawking, physicist

 

 

SELECTIVE MUTISM

 

   Many on the autistic spectrum are basically verbal but may nevertheless find it difficult to speak at times. It is not done on purpose to annoy others, but usually have perfectly valid reasons:

 

·  Straining. Some find it physically straining or painful or simply don’t like to talk.

 

   “I don't particularly like talking - verbally I mean - but I love writing. I often prefer messenger over a verbal conversation. I will and do have verbal conversations when I am in the mood - but sometimes it is just so painful - I seem to sometimes have difficulty verbalising things - getting the right words and my tone of voice is not correct either and can lead to misunderstandings.”

- Julie, adult Aspie from England

 

   Often I am too sensitive to use my voice. If I force myself to talk when my body tells me not to, it causes me severe pain, disruption and/or fatigue that may take a long time to recover from. And even on those days when I am fully able to talk, I will invariably need to rest my voice for at least a few days afterwards and need extra sleep to recover from the strain. Crying can also increase sensitivity to abnormal degrees so when I was depressed and cried a lot, I turned 100% non-verbal for years on end. That was really annoying since I sometimes wanted to be able to talk.

- Inger, site-author

 

   “Many times I just don't want to talk and don't. Then again there are other times when I would like to have someone to chat with. There are plenty of times, however, when there is literally a lump in my throat when I try to speak. Not a nervous lump but rather a kind of blockage as if something does not want to let the words out. Most people that know me don't get upset with just a nod of the head or a wave when I see them.”

- William, adult Aspie from USA

 

  “I sometimes have problems with actually getting a sound from my throat and talking loud enough.”

- O.J., adult Aspie from Norway

 

·  Relevance. Some speak only if they have something significant to convey.

 

   “Yes, it is quite bothersome to talk when I don't want to. I prefer to keep quiet and speak only when I have something important to say.”

 

- Heather, adult Aspie

 

·  Stress. Some may find communication with strangers mentally confusing or emotionally stressful and talk only with people they know and feel safe with.

 

   “At the end of school last year (year 11) i found it hard to talk at school or even outside of school. i stopped talking completely for about 3 months. I was finding it hard to try and figure out everything that was going on. for me, people trying to make me talk just made me angery.

   

   “I found it easier to talk when i knew that the person who i was talking to i could trust. i didn't like talking when there was a chance they could misunderstand and hate me. i would start talking and then worry about what if i had said somthing different before, which meant somthing different to them, but the same to me. what if i had said somthing which had changed. what if somone had told them somthing about me. that by talking i would confirm.

   “If i could trust the person i would talk to them. and i was happy to talk over IM on the compueter and by e-mail. I prefer this because i do not need to think about where evrything soundy goes in the words.”

- Jamie, adolescent autistic

 

·  Right brain dominance. According to Carla Hannaford, it is normal for a person with right brain hemisphere dominance to lose verbal ability under stress - especially if they also have a right hand, eye and/or ear dominance. Men with this disposition may find it extra difficult/impossible to communicate due to having less contact between hemispheres.

 

   “The more stressed I get, the less I like to talk. After a certain point, I have to MAKE myself talk, and after the final threshold has been reached, I CANNOT talk. I can open my mouth, but my throat constricts.”

- Tom, adult Aspie from USA

 

  I usually have access to both hemispheres when calm and focused, but when stressed, ill, excited, upset, inspired or when listening to music or working with colour, I notice myself becoming temporarily extreme-right-brained and introvert and sometimes find it hard to even think in words. Although frustrating to not be able to communicate right then, the increased sensitivity often gives me peak experiences and inspiration that may be of much use when I am able to resume communication again. During the 4-5 years when I was totally non-verbal, I got my best ideas and was more creative than ever! Other creative people I know have also reported becoming non-verbal during creative spells.

- Inger, site-author

 

·  Age. Some of us become more non-verbal with age and easily slip back into our normal non-verbal state as soon as we’re not required to talk.

 

   “I have also noticed that if I use my voice very little during longer periods, it becomes harder for me to talk, if I use my voice as much as possible during a period, my ability to talk increases. When I went to school and had to talk almost every day it wasn’t this bad. Those days I have difficulties talking, I often talk to low and have to repeat myself several times, the words sometimes come in out in the wrong order, I can start stuttering or find it hard to just pronounce the words.”

- Tobias, adult Aspie from Sweden

 

   To force or pressure someone to speak when they clearly indicate that they are unable or unwilling, is nothing less than abuse! If and when the person is able to speak without pain, strain, confusion or fear, s/he will do so voluntarily. Mutism and Selective Mutism are disabilities and should be respected as such. Using sign language, flash cards or pointing boards is then more helpful than trying to force the autistic to speak before they feel ready and able to.

 

   “The more people tried to make me speek the harder i found it to speek.

 

   “What alot of people don’t see is that when i was finding it hard to talk it was as much as that i didnt want to that when i did want to i couldent get it right. this made me angery at me. and when people kept saying to talk i felt bad because when i tried i would get it wrong by my way of it and they would not say anything else.

    “For me, the people who helped most were the people who accepted it, and were happy to understand that at that time i was happier with the signs. the signs to me were alot clearer. people would somtime say to me that i was being rude when i answerd a question because i said yes. they always said it was the way i said it. in BSL yes means yes. and no means no. avoiding this need to figure out how i was meant to make the sounds of it made me more happy to answer.”

- Jamie, adolescent autistic

 

VERBOSITY

 

·  Some ASD children – especially the more hyperactive ones – constantly talk or ask questions. This is most likely a sign of a bright & curious intellect, physical restlessness or emotional overexitability.

 

·  Some talk to themselves and don’t much care whether anyone is listening, others have a deep need for interaction and/or attention and may talk a lot in order to get it.

 

 

Echolalia

 

   Some autistics are only able to communicate by echolalia. Possible reasons:

 

·  Neurological impairment or other limitation prohibiting more complex forms of communication.

 

·  Trance. Being in an altered state and only partly ‘there’.

 

·  Learning. Mimicry is a how both humans and animals learn. For those who learn slower than others, or are busy processing all the extra sensory impressions a hyper-receptive person perceive, it makes sense to retain this behaviour longer than their peers.

 

·  For clarity. An adult autistic I know repeats things back (with the tone of a question) in order to make sure that both he and the person he is communicating with got each others’ messages correctly. He also seems to take much pleasure in the ritual of doing so and often does it a few times extra for good measure.

 

·  Pressure to talk before one feels ready to. One autistic author - may have been Donna Williams, in Nobody nowhere - described how she, as a child, repeated her mother’s words back to her in a desperate attempt to appear able to communicate and avoid agitating her mom.

 

 

links

 

Facilitated Communication Institute

 

National Geographic article about FC by Lorna Wing

 

Interacting with non-traditional communicators by Joel Smith