Are you non-verbal?

Post Reply New Topic

Am non verbal for most part [constant sensory and information overload related],when verbal,am echolilic,non verbal more than verbal,but am a makaton signer and laptop or PDA user for better communication.



Agreed,am hate seeing that online from people who do not know what it is like.
People who pre judge am online tend to say am not as affected/am verbal because am write well,yet people away from the internet including family and some home staff think am ret*d especially when NV.
Can't win either way.
Am would say to anyone who do not understand NVism and the many causes of it,to read about Tito Mukhopadhyay or watch his documentary.

I'm verbal, but everyone who knows me describes me as "VERY quiet". I rarely talk in a social context (some days a bit more than others, and it depends how well I know the people), and usually I only talk if someone says something to me first (ie they have to initiate the conversation and keep it going). Even in a non-social context (meetings at work, for example) I have a hard time with real-time communication - it's too hard to keep track of the conversation around me AND figure out what to say myself, so I rarely say anything. And when I'm tired, stressed, overloaded, I become almost mute (can't spit the words out even when I have something to say) and I end up resorting to head nodding, gestures, pointing, etc.

Ditto. I am definitely not non-verbal, but I have a lot of speaking problems. I can only resemble "normal speech" (whatever that means)
a) when I'm speaking on a perseveration, or
b) when I've rehearsed something.

I teach, so I have to talk. However, I write out everything FIRST, then rehearse it. In fact, I think the only times I say anything of substantive value is when I teach, because of this rehearsal mechanism. Thoughts are much more fluid for me when in writing. I generally sound stupid when I speak without having written or rehearsed the words first.

I'm a super-super quiet person, and people often attribute it to me being "shy." In reality, I hate talking, hate feeling stupid, and just can't process things very fast.

Also, participating in conversations is another thing entirely. It's one thing for me to talk at someone; it's much harder to talk with someone(s). Initiating, extending, or ending a conversation is quite a trial for me. I'm slow at processing, and sometimes all I can do is repeat what someone's just said. Unless, of course, they're speaking to my perseverations. Then I'm generally OK, albeit I probably sound windbaggish.

Yes! I can very much relate to this. Listening is hard enough -- trying to respond just distracts that much more of my cognitive energies. I often leave conversations wondering what on earth has been accomplished by having been there: I just feel as though I'm unable to make any sort of communicative mark, other than simple words or gestures.

I wonder if for those who're nonverbal, I know there's some who can, but I wonder if some cannot put thoughts to words no matter the medium.

For example, I couldn't read or write for a long time, and then I suddenly developed "overnight" so to speak; I wonder if there's those with autism who don't develop any verbal ability.

From observation, and introspection, I can with confidence state that the very construct of autistic thought is quantitatively different from 'normal' or NT thought; ours is not necessarily translatable. This has been reiterated by those who have posted above. I deeply understand (ie: kuiamalynne, neongrl, KingdomOfRats (whom I always understand!), others.......).

When I am depressed I am almost mute. There seems to be a block, stopping me from getting words out, or even wanting to get words out. People think that Im being rude, but its a real thing. As a child I spoke very young (before 18 months), but went through a period of not speaking a little later. I have found though that this block can be removed by antipsychotics (although the other effects these have on me mean that I dont want to be taking them all the time).

I'm very verbal under normal circumstances. I tend to talk almost non-stop. When I was little I used to follow my mom around the house just talking. However, when I am very stressed I become mute and can only communicate by writing. It is almost like my throat and tongue are paralyzed. Here is the American Heritage Dictionary definition of nonverbal, to clear up the confusion.
non·ver·bal (nŏn-vûr'bəl) Pronunciation Key
adj.
1. Being other than verbal; not involving words: nonverbal communication.
2. Involving little use of language: a nonverbal intelligence test.
3. Measuring low on a scale of verbal ability.

So, as you can see verbal refers to both written and spoken use of words. So someone who can write but can't speak is still verbal. Nonverbal only refers to people who do not use language to communicate. It literally means "without words." Anyone who is writing on this board is VERBAL! If you can write, you obviously cannot be nonverbal!

Quantitatively? How is it quantitatively different? Do NTs think less? Or do I have a misunderstanding of the sentence?


The majority of thoughts isn't possible to out adequately in words, even if one's very verbal, right. Information that is induced form the outside is easy/much easier to channel into words, but a thought or emotion that arises entirely from a matter within and that has nothing to do with the outside causing it, to put that in words that express the truth, that's... uh, a mystery?

I was non verbal in my early years. I did say a few words but I couldn't speak in sentences. I couldn't even ask questions either what I wanted like coming up to my mother and saying "Where is my..."

Sora - sorry, I think I said that wrong! I think qualititively would be more descriptive. No, I do not think NT think less. I do believe, from evidence, that autistic thought is simply not congruent with socio/verbal mechanisms. I am not making value-judgments at all but merely observing and using my knowledge.

So, qualitatively, the construct, maybe the 'shape' (no descriptive word here) of autistic thought is not equatable. There is evidence of this, one being that I lack a Sylvian Fissure. Not all autistic individuals lack a Sylvian Fissure but there is at least a positive correlation &/or caustion - unknown. NOT a coincidence that the Sylvian Fissure (or lack of) runs through Broca's and Weirneke's (oops, I know I misspelled this word) area of the brain. These areas are precisely where verbal (and socio) interaction is processed. Couple that with what is given: Autistics (regardless of level of functioning) lack (or have abnormal functioning) mirror neurons. That is, our mirror neurons are like a one-way mirror instead of the NT two-way mirror. You often hear autistics (whatever functioning level) say (many versions of): "I feel locked in a box.....isolated.......cannot communicate outside my head.....etc." See this? NTs are relatively good at 'mirroring' each other and therefore communicate quite naturally. One marker of autistism of just the lack of social communication/interaction.

In sum, I should have said QUALITATIVE, not quantitative, difference in thought construct. Just a different way of being. I hope that makes sense.....good catch on my typo though!

In order to "communicate" though, others must be able to "commune" with what you are expressing. If someone speaks to me in perfect, eloquent, Mandarin over the phone, s/he will not be communicating with me, as I cannot understand. Same with an individual who would be considered very low-functioning autistic. Even though s/he may be communicating with you in his or her own way, if the recipient of the attempted communication cannot understand, communication hasn't occurred.

So, I do think non-communicative is an OK terminology, although people could probably come up with something that has a bit more positive sound to it.

I hate it when I'm told that a kid is "non-verbal," and then I realize that he or she talks all the time, just no one else listens because the words are mixed in with other sounds.

Ever since I was in high school I had an on-again-off-again interest in linguistics. I wonder if that has anything to do with my language issues.

I don't think non-communicative is okay, because (a) it assumes that no communication is ever occurring, and (b) it makes it a trait of the person communicating.

It's never said, after all, "This interaction is non-communicative," it's said "This person is non-communicative," with the recipient of the communication never ever being called that, always the person communicating.

Calling autistic people non-communicative for communicating in ways that some people can't understand, is like calling my parents non-communicative because I had receptive language problems that prevented me from understanding them when I was little. Or calling people who use standard body language "non-communicative" if they were talking to a lot of the people on this board who can't read it. People who communicate in standard ways are never called non-communicative for communicating in standard ways to people who can't understand standard communication, and people who communicate in non-standard ways ought not to be considered non-communicative for communicating in non-standard ways to people who can't understand non-standard communication either.

Calling a person "non-communicative" takes all the responsibility for the failure of the communication interaction and puts it on one person, when there are always two people involved in the interaction and therefore it's the characteristics of each one that combines to create a successful or failed interaction. That's why I refuse to do it.

Anbuend, I completely agree with your last post. My mother barely spoke at all until I was 17 or so (she was about 35; maybe she changed meds?), but I understood her just fine. It never occurred to me that she might be some other way. I just saw her as quiet and shy (though now I know better). Once when I was about 15 something really great happened at school, and when I got home I told my mom about it. She was psyched, but a friend who was with me at the time expressed shock afterwards that my mother hadn't cared at all. I couldn't understand why my friend would think that. As an adult I have been told by more than one therapist that I am hypersensitive to nonverbal communication (which I get the impression is fairly rare for an Aspie), and I always chalked that up to growing up with a mother who was effectively nonverbal. This hypersensitivity is a bit of a curse and a blessing!

As for me, I talk too much, normally. A few times when I have gotten extremely stressed out I have abruptly lost the ability to speak (never for more than about half an hour). I open my mouth, but can't get anything to come out. I have tried many times to describe this to therapists, but never really felt successful. Fortunately this only happens every few years, but it really freaks out whatever guy I happen to be with at the time. I kind of see it as a more extreme version of getting "stuck" (overwhelmed/paralysed), which happens to me a lot more often.

I think MOST would say that 1, or even TWENTY, words won't cut it. The average person generally speaks over 3000 words. So I doubt many would agree that speaking a few means you are verbal.

lab pet might well have some kind of concentration deficit or sensitivity that makes it to where she really CAN'T talk to just anyone. She has made it sound like that is the case. I have had a TASTE of that myself, so I know how that can be.

My vocabulary is pretty large, and I can communicate about 99% of the time and, even when it is very sub par, I can probably communicate ok(I usually try to just get them to leave, excuse myself, or I just leave), so I am certainly not saying I am non verbal.