Do you notice most people speak more fluently than you?
A lot of this sounds just like me. I forget common names for things and have to describe them, I take a few extra seconds for my mind to retrieve the word I want to use, I get confused when I talk even though what I want to say makes sense in my head. If I can type, I can usually speak much better than in person. I find myself saying, "That's not really what I'm trying to say" and/or just giving up mid-explanation and saying, "I don't know what I'm saying, nevermind."
I've also found that this has gotten worse, not better, as time has gone on.
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You don't need to hide, my friend, for I am just like you.
my dad does the same thing to me whenever i'm in public with him, "say hi to him/her, Kip! they're talking to you!" even when i do notice it and i don't know how to respond or just don't care. luckily they don't mind either or hold grudges, except for one occasion. i'm not one to call people my their names when saying a simple hello.
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הייתי צוללת עכשיו למים
הכי, הכי עמוקים
לא לשמוע כלום
לא לדעת כלום
וזה הכל אהובי, זה הכל.
I don't know. Sometimes I thought of this too, because not all 'words' in my mind ever come out of my mouth in a 'right way' of conveying it.
But what I do notice is that others talks more informal or casual, regardless it's fluency.
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I can be either a lot more or a lot less eloquent and articulate than most people. I'm not sure what makes the difference. Probably confidence and calmness. If there are no distractions, that helps. Also tiredness - mostly my brain runs pretty fast, but it has slow days too. And I can too easily go into data-dump mode when I'm just pouring out everything that occurs to me, including all the multiple tangents that my thinking style is prone to. I don't know if that qualifies as eloquent. Certainly it doesn't go down well. What I do say is nearly always fairly well-organised, with either good grammar and syntax or a crisp, accessible vernacular style, but the speed of delivery (fast or slow), the amount said (often too little or too much), and those damned off-topic tangents can sometimes make my talking very difficult to listen to.
I've noticed it takes me a little longer than others to process verbal speech. It takes me an extra half-second or second to figure out what is being said. Just a little longer than your typical person. It's a little hard for me to follow directions especially if multiple directions are giving at once.
People on the spectrum oftentimes seem better able to communicate concepts than feelings, or assessments pertaining to an interaction. They have trouble thinking in the second and third person perspectives, and this is reflected in the way they communicate.
You may have noticed that this post is probably the only one in this thread that isn't predicated upon or started with the word "I", that other posters in the thread are describing their personal experiences, that the premise and title of the thread is asking people what they personally notice. While there is nothing inherently wrong with such solipsism, and it can readily be observed amongst people who don't have similar issues with theory of mind, clearly there are some ways that this can hamper the way that autistic people speak.
Part of speaking fluently, i.e. in a manner that other people can easily understand, is a measure of self awareness and theory of mind. Subjects can propel us along one moment and we seem to be fluent because we are because having an internal dialogue, and the next moment we can't express ourselves because we don't feel propelled by our own thoughts.
I often find that I am self propelled like this, and this self awareness can be uncomfortable. Here is a basic function of dialogue that I am aware of, but it seems I am just beginning to register well during conversation. So I often find myself feeling extremely fluent when the subject is the Latin language, and the next second I can't tell someone where the salt is, why I did thus and such, or what my own emotions are at the moment.
Heavenlyabyss' remark about delays in speech is also something that I definitely resemble, and I can see that abyss isn't the only poster here to mention that. Multiple directions are tough for sure.
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There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.
Nahj ul-Balāgha by Ali bin Abu-Talib
Pretty much "+1" to everything above.
Particularly the thing about mentally rehearsing or preparing conversations before actually having them.
I also really like this one:
In my ideal world, nobody would speak longer than 30 seconds straight without pausing to give others a chance to interject or ask for clarification - and nobody would ever interrupt anyone else, except during these pauses.
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Father of 2 children diagnosed with ASD, and 2 more who have not been evaluated.
mr_bigmouth_502
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You may have noticed that this post is probably the only one in this thread that isn't predicated upon or started with the word "I", that other posters in the thread are describing their personal experiences, that the premise and title of the thread is asking people what they personally notice. While there is nothing inherently wrong with such solipsism, and it can readily be observed amongst people who don't have similar issues with theory of mind, clearly there are some ways that this can hamper the way that autistic people speak.
Part of speaking fluently, i.e. in a manner that other people can easily understand, is a measure of self awareness and theory of mind. Subjects can propel us along one moment and we seem to be fluent because we are because having an internal dialogue, and the next moment we can't express ourselves because we don't feel propelled by our own thoughts.
I often find that I am self propelled like this, and this self awareness can be uncomfortable. Here is a basic function of dialogue that I am aware of, but it seems I am just beginning to register well during conversation. So I often find myself feeling extremely fluent when the subject is the Latin language, and the next second I can't tell someone where the salt is, why I did thus and such, or what my own emotions are at the moment.
Heavenlyabyss' remark about delays in speech is also something that I definitely resemble, and I can see that abyss isn't the only poster here to mention that. Multiple directions are tough for sure.
It's funny you pointed that out, because lately I've noticed that I tend to begin a lot of my sentences with "I", and I worry that this makes me sound self-centered.
To be perfectly honest, it probably does make you sound that way to NT's. This is okay though, and it doesn't mean that you have zero concern for other people and their thoughts. Being in the same predicament, I can give the advice that there are some methods which can allow you to get better at communicating, and break this habit.
One method is that when you are writing something, you consciously say to yourself from the start: "I am going to try to write this out with a maximum of one or two sentences starting with "I", and also try to keep "me" to a minimum". You can even make this something fun by treating it like a subject to learn, observing material from people who have the habit of referring to themselves as well as others with equal ease.
Another method where you can use Wrongplanet to work on that, is to purposefully make a habit of taking your time with threads, reading and seriously considering a number of posts, and then picking one to quote every time, so that instead of just engaging with the premise of the thread you are engaging with that person as well. This is a good method to try and develop a more healthy and functional theory of mind. Consciously try to make observations about other people's posts.
Don't be alarmed though, my friend, because it is clear to me that you've done plenty of this. You aren't any different from most of the folks here, and I've never been pressed with the thought that you, in particular, are self centered. The difference between the fairly limited interpersonal engagement you've shown here and the methods I'm suggesting, is that they are like an exercise or brain teaser.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with you or myself because we have trouble in this area. Also it can seem laborious and tedious to use these methods, so I guess it depends on how you feel about it. However, from personal experience I can attest that it has been fun and if you have the right attitude it feels like you are challenging yourself to learn. It can be basically the same as picking up and reading a book that you like, if you happen to find the endeavor interesting and rewarding. The brain is a muscle, and our theory of mind is likewise a muscle that improves whenever we "pump some iron".
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btbnnyr
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Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
This question doesn't have clear answer for me.
Sometimes, I can be really fluent and fast speaking when I am talking about something I did.
It seems that the act of doing things, such as running code to calculate something in steps allows a sequencing of these steps that allows easier verbal communication.
If I just thought about things without acting through the steps, it is much harder to talk about things, as the sequencing isn't done when thinking, as I don't think in sequenced steps.
For me, word-finding is not much a problem, but possibly sequencing ideas into verbal communications is.
But action helps, so at least I can talk well about what I did.
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Drain and plane and grain and blain your brain, and then again,
Propane and butane out of the gas main, your blain shall sustain!
I often speak too fast, at least when I know exactly what to say (in my native language Dutch). In English, German and Esperanto I speak more slowly, but still fluently.
I have to practice with speaking slower that people are able to understand me. I criticize people on Dutch TV because of inaccurate and fast speaking, but I should also consider my own speaking behaviour.
I think in pictures so if I want to say something I have to code it into one of the languages I know. I think very fast and efficiently. Pictures but no language are involved. A language is only used by me for verbal communication but not for thinking.
I often forget names for simple things too. If someone asks me where something is I might mean to say "It's in the laundry", but it will actually come out like "It's in the *mind goes blank*........ clothes washing place".
However, in other situations, I'm very fluent. I have a large vocabulary and if I have time to form a response (in other words, for a speech, or a large pause before responding), then I'm able to speak more fluent than most. It doesn't help me much though if I can't use it in real-time sadly.
NowhereWoman
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Joined: 1 Jul 2009
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Location: Los Angeles, CA
People don't speak more fluently than I do, but I tend to start speaking in a "little professor"-ish way if I don't watch it. It's not a sign of intelligence in my case, BTW - I have a very, very average IQ (have totally bucked the "All Aspies are GENIUSES!" mythology there) - but I have been verbally precocious since infancy (two- and three-word combinations at 10 months of age and about a 50-word total vocabulary at that time; and a tendency toward run-on sentences both in speaking and writing) and have always been fascinated with all aspects of words and so I apparently "come off as" bright...but in an odd way. I have a pretty extensive vocabulary and if I am enthusiastic about a subject I'll forget to modify my way of speaking. It sounds stilted to others' ears, as I understand. Maybe that amounts to a lack of fluency? I'm not sure.
I generally try to sound like other people when I speak...I interject plenty of lingo...I deliberately make grammatical errors (I do the same on Facebook)...probably too much but oh well, I will probably never get this completely "right" and by now I'm more or less comfortable with that fact.
Here's another interesting thing - well, interesting to me, anyway: when speaking online anonymously, if I haven't made it obvious I'm a woman - for example, as I did here with my username - nearly all the time, people will express shock when I mention something that indicates I'm female. The overwhelming majority of the time, based on my writing, people think I'm male. I've always wondered about that.
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