Somewhat Flawed Autism Study

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When I first read the headline of this study, "Talking things through in your head may help autism" http://news.yahoo.com/talking-things-he ... 47542.html

I thought, yes, explicit reasoning can be a great aid to those on the spectrum in navigating certain situations, however then I read more.

Apparently, NTs have an inner voice, which is some sort of actual verbal, though non-auditory mechanism, which they use to think instructions to themselves. The researchers speculate that those on the spectrum also have such a voice, however tend not to utilize it. They concluded this by having the subjects perform tasks while repeating a selected day of the week out loud.
Those on the spectrum performed considerably better. The researchers speculated that the reason for this was that repeating the word out loud impeded on the NT control groups internal dialog which they used to guide themselves through tasks and situations, while those on the spectrum were not impeded because they were not utilizing an internal dialog.

The researchers suggested that helping them to utilize this internal dialog and giving them verbal instructions rather than visual instructions could be beneficial. However I believe this suggestion, while well intentioned, is NTcentric.

I propose that NTs use an internal verbal dialog because that is the means in which it is simplest for them to navigate tasks. To those with HFA, however, who had clinically significant language delays, the path of least resistance and most efficiency was an alternate, non-verbal one, and forcing them to use an alternate thinking mechanism would be a bit like forcing a dog to walk upright. Yes, dogs can be coaxed to walk on two legs, but at what cost? Lack of efficiency and hip problems, at the very least.

I'm not proposing that no efforts be made to improve the lifes of those with HFA through means they don't come by naturally, however I caution those who attempt to implement such a thing with an individual with HFA as they must be sensitive to the limitations of the individual and know when to allow the person to do things their own way.

Generally speaking, as a person with AS, I was more impeded than anything by those who would not let me do things the way I needed to do them.

It's called an internal monologue and I agree, having autistics use this mechanism isn't a great idea just because it works for non autistics - you should work with what you're used to, and in this case of autistics that tends to be, to quote Temple Grandin: thinking in pictures.

I'm trying to understand how they concluded that autistic people all have inner speech and just don't use it? I have a very limited amount of it, and it is very difficult for me to use for anything more than extremely simple and repetitive thoughts. For me, it's not an unused faculty, it's simply not a usable faculty.

Is "internal verbal dialog" when I talk to myself or others inside my head? If so I do that. I thought everyone did and wondered why some people talked out loud to themself when they could just do it silently in their head.

Not all autistic people think in pictures, and not all autistic people are incapable of inner monologue. But yes, we should work with what works best for us, rather than what works best for someone else.

I've got that internal monologue. It doesn't shut up, or at least I think it doesn't. I can think both verbally and nonverbally.

And in fact there are some of us who neither think in pictures nor tend to inner monologue. I'm capable of inner monologuing, but do so only rarely, and it doesn't help me speed up, it just tends to cause me to sign what I'm thinking or process it like I'm typing it while I'm thinking it. I also don't think in pictures at all.

I didn't mean to imply those were the only options, I was trying to say that there were more options than just those. Sorry.

My thoughts all get muddled up into a great big fuzz so I have no idea if there is anything of use in there! I am able to think in both pictures, verbal thoughts and through tactile memory. Apparently my learning pattern is odd but in a good way. I have to have my timetable as a picture one otherwise I forget what to do in the day because I can't filter out 'Have a shower' from the rest of the rubbish in my head!

My internal voice talks me through my internal blueprints and diagrams... sometimes I just do it out loud too. I even picture my internal diagram and reach to write on it and manipulate it like a blackboard in midair, talking myself through it. It's fun and really solidifies that 'absent minded professor' image.

MOAR Verbal Instructions??? NOOOOOOO!! !

Purrrty Pictures, BeeePleeeBus.

Didn't think you did, but I find that its a common misconception so was one I wanted to specify early on wasn't necessarily true.

But make sure the purty pictures are clear, sometimes they are even more confusing then verbal directions if done incorrectly.

My internal dialogue never shuts up!

I have a verbal but auditory inner voice in my head. Sometimes I find myself speaking out loud and hardly realise that I am. Also, sometimes my thoughts are too complex to stay just in my head.

I'm constantly running scenarios in my head, it's usually dialogue because I'm good with dialogue. I don't instruct myself with words, that would be redundant.

I often wonder about this subject. Obviously this study is ass backwards - replacing autistics' conceptual thought with more robotic instructions would remove our only advantage while not helping the oxytocin-circuit social stuff. But I have d6oubts that nonautistics are actually as simple as that.