Verbal Communications Differences and Difficulties Sticky

Post Reply New Topic

I just profoundly know this.....Just locked inside and no way out! Like screaming behind an impervious wall and no one can see/hear. And it hurts so badly.

So sorry Xelebes - I hope you feel better soon & maybe then the muteness will abate some. I also have 'good days' that seem to alternate with just no way out. Feel as if I'm banging my head against that wall. Ouch.

I am so sorry, hope you get better soon. I have been there with the attemting suicide and emerged from that dark place a stronger person. Glad your getting help and hope you start to feel better

I never saw this post before. Great post. I used to be very bad about not being able to talk anywhere but home a nd then very little.

I sat in a shrink's office once for 60 minutes back in the day when it was 60 minutes. He charged $60 for the sessiona nd I imagined givning him $1 a minute. We just sat there looking at each other. He needs to give my parents their money back, the half assed sophist.

I also sat a Bible study 2 eyars not saying a word. They thought I was ret*d.

I got someone better at talking just by watching and mimicking. THen I would have to psych myself up and would feel so like I could talk and get to the social situaion and not be able to say a word. Further if I walked by someone I wanted to talk to, I would not be able to look at them or even stop, but would fly on by and not be able to say anyhthing.

If I were alone with someone I might be able to sqeek out a few owrds. Very awful


I am OK now in certain situations and stay away from the other.s .I still have a hrd time with Dr's. And with certani others. It makes no sense, really.

Sometimes I think I wll be fine and I am not. Other tiems I am sure I will not be able to peep and I can.

It is madness.

For me that was school, when I entered first grade, the school just thought I was ret*d and threw me into special education, with the severely disabled kids, and they really didn't worry about teaching me much then, didn't learn letters or numbers till third grade. Then they realized I wasn't as dumb as they though, so they put me in a different sped class. Wasn't till 7th grade that they realized that I wasn't dumb, and finally put me in some regular classes, unfortunately by that time they screwed up my education so bad, that I was way behind. By the time I was a senior in high school I had failed so many classes, I was just ready to become a high school drop out. Luckily they realized they screwed up and decided to let me graduate. It is funny that no one ever thought, this kid might be autistic or something, so I never got the diagnoses, instead they diagnosed me with a bunch other things. So at the age of 24 I am finaly getting some help to learn some of the things the school failed to teach me.

Anyway, yeah, there are times I think I am going to be okay, then someone unexpectedly ask me a question and I am not able to answear, then I am left felling embarrassed because I cant do anything but stand there and stare

You are very lucky to know so young. I know it was not young enough. I am much older and went through a horrific marriage, awful therapies, told I was killing myparents, labled with terrible things that I am not. They just chucked every new label at me. Literally. So I have all that on my record.

WHen I had my child, they could not get beyond it and wrote that I had XYZ all over my charts. WHen I had a bad med. reaction and my blood levels were falling, they read the past records and said it was a panic attack. When I fired her and went to another Dr, I went to a very kind hematologist who explained that anxiety does not cause blood levels to drop!

So it's all over my records and often I am treated poorly just by walking in and they think I am not some crazed woman with all the misogynistic lables that they give to women. Grrr.

I have not asked to have it corrected because sometime they treat AUT just as bad. Some people on hhere have had Dr. s talk very slow and loudly as if they were ret*d.

It's bad to have a disabilty anywhere, I suppose.

Yeah, it'sok as I know someone else is in a similar situation as me who is with me in the program. You know, with the suspected AS and all. "Do you like maps? OH I LOVE MAPS!" That kind of oddness...

I guess most of us know about Makaton - a variant of British Sign Lanugage that is basically designed for Autists. Sign is used by Autists, of course, but Makaton is distinct in that, most notably, there are no facial expressions to interpret and the signs are based upon ACTION words, not necessarily nouns. And no finger spelling - symbols are icons much like an Asian language. Language may not be inherent in the Autistic mind so Makaton is designed accordingly.

BTW: KingdomOfRats has a video of her 'speaking' in Makaton. Good job, KoR!

Anyway, just for fun this is the FUNNIEST video - ever - where Makaton is signed to the pop song 'Torn' by Natalie (really misspelling her name here...) Imbrueglia (?). I LOVE this - hysterical. I do not know if this comedian is an Aspie but I would suspect so and I have seen his work elsewhere (another said he is but unknown). In any case - Autists have that great sense of humor and this is his Makaton interpretation. He says a lot, and with no words:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEe7Aog7OBs&NR=1

Xelebes: Aspies are kind of weird....but we have charm. I like this Makaton guy ^ Karoke, Autist style

Sorry for the repost....does anyone know? Is David Armand an Aspie? In any case - beautiful Makaton of 'Torn.' He's from 'Hollow Man,' mime/comedian from the UK.

I didnt have a clue there was a special sign language for us, that is so awesome!! !
Or was that all a joke LabPet?
Tell me more, tell me more! I would learn it just for the fact that it was designed for auties

The program that I use to type out messages is symbol based, and it also has a bunch of signing type symbols, I wounder if they are that type of signs.

Makaton is especially of use for Autists (of all levels) and quite easy to learn, as I understand. Makaton is based upon British Sign Language with variations, notably based upon ACTION words instead of merely spelling letters. You could Google Makaton & there's some YouTube videos, even a start-up packet. Makaton seems intuitively based towards Autism and even children learn quickly.

Whilst I think sign, especially Makaton, is good the implicit assumption is that another can read Makaton....a perennial problem. If there's some close to you (like those you work with, family, etc) who can learn the basics then this would work well! I do know KingdomOfRats has learned Makaton. Age1600 knows sign and I would imagine she could become very proficient in Makaton. I know British Sign and ASL differ but they're similar enough - I think Makaton is a natural variation that would translate well.


The video is cute and David Armand is a master mime with comedic talent. But he does show Makaton in action!

http://www.makaton.org/about/ss_what.htm

This is one site about Makaton but there's more, plus videos showing Makaton 'spoken.' Also KingdomOfRats has a really cool video on her own website - good job KoR!

Thanks LabPet!
Always forget about NVtalk as it isn't easy to spot when never look at the stickies,deserves its own proper forum,or a language/speech forum if its about not getting enough users.

Have used makaton since being taught it by support staff and a prof/autistic at aged twenty,and have taught a few staff from here and the NAS.
It's probably the hardest type of sign to learn for adults who are not in residential care/around support staff,as most of the teaching of makaton is aimed at support staff and carers-am going to be making more makaton videos for others-longer and better made,as have now got a 'proper' panasonic HDD camcorder.

Thanks LabPet

Kingdom, great video
I am going to try to learn it, even that I dont know anyone that I could use it with.

Thanks LabPet the film of the Makaton of 'Torn' was good it made me smile, and I was impressed to see KingdomOfRats's film.

How large is the vocab of Makaton and how well can two strangers who both know it discuss a random topic such as if it is best to wrap fish and chips in newspaper or plain paper ?

I think that the best test of a language is to see if people can use it to discuss a randomly selected topic, I know that catholic priests know the Latin associated with church services but could one priest use Latin to ask another priest to come around with a spanner for undoing the wheel nuts on his car.

LabPet, thank you for this thread. I remember when it started and I'm glad to see it's still going.

I do all right in simple social situations - it's been a while since I've been completely mute. Now when I'm stressed I mostly sound like I'm whining. Big improvement! But I've had problems with email versus phone, so I liked your letter from many pages back.

We are supposed to receive accessible services from government offices, but it is much harder to get a response by email than by phone. The police and noise control don't even have email. For emergencies, dial 911 and go into hysterics. But what about non-emergency problems? And recently I wanted to join an organization. I emailed them and didn't hear back, so said I wouldn't join if they wouldn't email. Fortunately they emailed me just recently, finally. Perhaps the PT office worker is only in one day a week? So I will join, when I get my next welfare check. But it was close. They almost didn't get my money!

And my supervisor at my last job not answering my emails was part of my not succeeding there.

I am tired of email being second-class communication, with phone first. And I have been thinking about how to participate in legal hearings, when conversation goes too fast. I have checked out the Alphasmart devices online - thank you for describing them. Also, a whiteboard may be a good idea. But perhaps they will allow a laptop and some sort of connection for legal hearings? Anyone have any experience of this?

NEO or DANA from Alphasmart are good choices and more accesible than a laptop for just communication purposes. A white board? Well, I guess, but this isn't any different than pen & paper. I suppose this would depend upon your audience and needs too.

I REALLY like Makaton - thank you, KingdomOfRats. Like any sign you must have another to sign with - that can be problematic. Unsure, but for court-stuff (I wouldn't know) but in academics an interactive live program is used, such as Eliminate. This is for communicating with remote users who can write their responses/comments and have a common visual of those interacting. Maybe you could ask, like an accommodation?