Non-verbal autistics...

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I would like to know more about non-verbal autistics, I have tried googling this but all I can find are articles like "curing severe autism" and this is not what I am looking for at all. I am aware that there are many non-verbal or partially non-verbal autistics on WrongPlanet and it is impossible to tell who they are by their writing skills unless they specifically say that they are non-verbal.

What I would like to know is, can you speak and choose not to? If so, why do you choose not to? Or do you have limited or no ability to speak at all?

I apologise if I offend anyone because of my ignorance, I am just curious to know as most people on here seems to have an average or above vocabulary.

I don't think there's many nonverbal members here (I think the member anbuend may be the only one), and others who're effectively nonverbal in effect (the member KingdomOfRats). There's many members, including me, who lose speech when we become overwhelmed [due to various reasons].

It's a genuine impairment in processing language; getting it from the mind to the mouth. They once thought that Autistic people chose not to talk as children, but later, with the introduction of speech therapy, they found that there is a definite mechanical "problem" in the mind, and it can be helped in many cases with such speech therapy. Sign language is used nowadays in addition to speech therapy, with good effect (or so they say)

The nonverbal rate is around 18% in adults with Autism (it used to be 50%); most gain adequate speech after several years of early delay.

I stammered/stuttered from the age of 6 until a few years ago. During that time the severity of my problem varied and I suspect it can be linked to my autism. Before the age of six my speech was perfectly normal. I have no problems speaking now to my great relief. When I'm tired, overloaded or anxious I tend to have more trouble speaking.

Thank you for your replies they were very helpful

Thinking about it now, when I shutdown I find it difficult to get any words out and if I try to speak none of what I say makes sense.

depends on my mood. and sometimes, it feels way to difficult to process and utter a single word. it ticks me mum off when i insist on pointing to an object, "refusing" to talk. then there are times where i seem to talk A LOT.

i remember in class once, I finally spoke up and someone commented..."Woah, I didn't even know you were here you were so quiet." In response...I just smiled.

I'm not nonverbal, but I work with a bunch of nonverbal autistic kids, and some of them definitely have difficulty actually physically producing speech. Some of the kids try very hard to imitate speech, but can only manage some rough approximations- they have difficulty producing most sounds individually, and have even more difficulty combining them into syllables and words. Even the kids who are able to speak consistently often have significant articulation problems which interfere with intelligibility (so not just difficulty with /s/ or /r/ for example).

Then there are some other kids who don't imitate speech at all, but have their own idiosyncratic vocalizations which can be extremely varied and include a bunch of different sounds. I know kids who will run through a bunch of different English language sounds, and also include trills, whistles, clicks, etc. So while they don't speak, they at least don't seem to have the physical difficulty producing speech sounds that some kids appear to have.

Then there are some other kids who will sometimes produce grammatically complete, lengthy sentences out of the blue, but the rest of the time use only one word or two word phrases, so it's not clear what the issue is. There are also other kids who exhibit more run of the mill language problems like you might see in an NT kid with specific language impairment. So basically, there are a bunch of different areas of speech and language which might cause problems for a kid with autism.

I do work with one kid who probably has AS who has really advanced language abilities, but often ignores questions until they are repeated. I guess she might possibly be an example of a kid who can speak and chooses not to. But then again, she's not nonverbal. I would really be surprised if there are any nonverbal kids who actually have the ability to produce speech easily and consistently (at least any kids without psych issues obviously).

Okay, that was really long and rambling, but I hope the point was clear. The point was basically that autistic kids who exhibit limited or no language likely do so because they have difficulty either processing or producing language- not because they choose not to speak.

i'm 50% verbal, use pecs and sign to communicate. theres times im completely nonverbal just noises come out, then times i use echolalia or one worders. i soooo badly wish they found a cure for speech, i hate it, i never get what i want to say across, i never can speak my mind easily its always a hard task. the worst part is when nobody uses sign around you, or your pecs are no where near you, ugh! most of the time with me its the guessing game, when you hang around me often you automatically know what i want but saying certian babbles, and if not you have to guess and hope that its the right guess before it sends me into full meltdown mode. there are times i can speak well, oh i love those times and cherish them. theres times you can meet me and im talking up a storm, but those times are limited and usually afterwards my speech is nothing but babbling or noises.

i cant explain why, i wish i knew, for me it almost feels like im choking and can't get my words out, there in my head floating sometimes or theres nothing going on and that bothers me even more. i know when im completely nonverbal it feels like i have to take an extra hard breath just to get a one worder out, like my brain lost the connection completely to the vocal cords and my vocal cords are straining to work. i would do anything in this world to cure my speech problems, do anything to speak and pronouce perfectly, to tell you how i feel or what i want or what i need without a problem it would be like heaven. anyways all i can do now is use my pecs, sign and pray for the best!

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

Try googling "tito mukhopadhyay".
He's an adolescent boy in India who, although low-functioning with repetitive behaviors and mutism, had been taught to communicate by pointing at letters on a board. His autobiography demonstrated that "he can communicate his thoughts and feelings through remarkable prose and poetry, written in fluent English." Pop neurobiologist Oliver Sacks wrote "it has usually been assumed that deeply autistic people are scarcely capable of introspection or deep thought, let alone of poetic or metaphoric leaps of the imagination -- or, if they are, that they are incapable of communicating these thoughts to us. Tito gives the lie to all these assumptions, and forces us to reconsider the condition of the deeply autistic."

Wanting to promote understanding and respect for autistic people, Tito endured months of testing with varying degrees of patience and results. But Tito's explanations for his test responses provided the researchers with profound insight and new avenues of investigation, particularly in the field of sensory integration which seemed to be the main obstacle to Tito's speech.

Age--are your fine-motor skills any good? you could write out what you wanted to say; you're very understandable typing.

I kind of doubt you can get the insurance company to buy you a keyboard if you can talk, even talk some of the time. I know some people have managed it; but... well, I've heard some pretty bad stories. Like people not getting powered wheelchairs until they can hardly move their arms because a manual chair is tearing their joints up so badly... "Sorry, we can't help you; you can still use the manual chair. Come back when you can't anymore, then we'll help you."

Yeah, it would be nice if you could have something to fall back on. For all you know, just having it might take your stress level down enough so you'd need it less than you thought you might. (Like how I carry back-up stuff like stim toys or my cloak in my backpack, which I almost never use but feel better just having... and when I need them, I NEED them! Heh.)