Speech Issue---Restarting sentences over and over again

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Hello all-

Just wondering if any of you have ever dealt with this speech issue. My 12 yr old Aspie son has just recently started this habit. Whenever he starts to tell us or somebody else something, he will re-start the sentence 5, 6 or even more times before he can get it out. He has started doing it with his reading as well. He will keep re-starting the sentence over and over again. He has always loved repetition, but this is new. It is almost like a stutter, but not really. Any suggestions would be helpful.

I would guess it is some form of apraxia of speech maybe? Like he has some kind of blockage between what is in his brain to say and actually coming out with it. Maybe he gets stuck and starts over.

I am just guessing b/c I don't know if it is usual for that to even be something that happens at 12 spontaneously.

When I was young, I had an issue where I was pretty verbose but under certain circumstances my thoughts just couldn't escape my mouth, if that makes sense. I grew out of it and no one knew I had it, but that was b/c it was not a frequent thing. I couldn't even start though, so there was no need to go back and start over but I could see where that could happen..

This sounds like a job for a speech pathologist. They will be able to work out the cause.

Is your son as mystified about it as you are, or is he unconcerned by it?

I also wonder; when he restarts a sentence, does his vocal tone change at all? I ask because I used to do a very similar thing a lot as a child, though much more rarely now. The difference is that I don't remember ever doing it out loud, though I do sometimes find myself doing some of the tongue and throat movements of speaking (something to check with Mum next time I see her!) It's as if I'm trying to find the right vocal tone by "saying" the words in my head in different ways until I "hear" the intonation that sounds right, cutting each attempt short as soon as it sounds wrong. It's different to having trouble finding the words, it's more like I have to practice their sounds before I'm sure they'll come out right. Once I have the right tone in mind, I can start speaking and then be fluent for the rest of the sentence or even until the end of my turn to speak.

I remember getting told to "cough it up, then" quite a bit as a kid because of the way it made me pause before I spoke. Unfortunately, it's too long ago now to remember when it started or how quickly it came or went. On the rare occasions that I do it now, I'm either very anxious about what I have to say, or it'll be when I'm reading lines of dialogue in a book (trying to "hear" how the character would have said it.)

Given your son's age, I wonder also if he's concerned about his voice breaking, even if he's not been through that yet, making him anxious about how he sounds. I remember doing a lot of "practice talking" around that time, trying to find my "adult" voice, especially once I had peers who's voices had already broken. It's also a very bizarre experience to open your mouth and have a voice that you don't recognise come out.

I have met a couple of Aspies at meet-ups who have speech patterns that sound similar, and they have described it as a form of echolalia. One of them is particularly alike as he repeats the first few words of sentences, the other repeats particular words whenever they're part of something he is saying, and both of them with quite a lot of variation in tone. The first time I met them, I was struck straight away by how similar they sounded to my internal, silent version, but I have no idea if the cause is the same.

It certainly sounds distinctive, so I imagine a professional would be able to identify it quite easily.

Hello

You said he has always loved repetition. Has he had much introduction to poetry, particularly the more traditional stuff. You get to say it over and over in a lovely soothing pattern.

Thanks for your replies. I am in another Aspie parenting group, and apparently, this speech issue is not that uncommon. Not sure what it is but some suggestions were a form of echolalia, vocal tics, maybe Tourette's and maybe just having his brain work quicker than what he is able to speak. I guess it is just one of those things that may pass, so I am just not going to worry too much about it.

I do that thing where I re-start sentences over and over when I'm nervous, especially if in a conflict. It can also happen that my communication gets worse if I'm under pressure for an extended period of time (like getting more responsibilities, unexpected events, not enough alone-time or changes in the routine).
I would say that if it started all of a sudden, it's likely that something has caused it. Maybe there's something that's stressing him out?

I am doing this when I forget what I was about to say or how I wanted to say it in the middle of saying it - so I start over. I don't do it often though and when I do it is related to being nervous. And also makes me even more nervous so I learned to repeat it in my head instead of out loud, and only say the following part when I finally work it out. That causes some silence in the middle of sentence, which I fill by raising a finger (a gesture meaning "Wait a moment").