Ways Asperger's affects ability to communicate?

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I'm doing a research project on Asperger's syndrome. The full question is "What are the main ways in which Asperger's syndrome affects your ability to communicate?" for the sake of asking it here.

You can interpret this however you want and list as many things as apply to you. I just need some ideas for my thesis and thought I would try asking people here what they thought because you guys can give me real feedback.

Thank you for your input!

There is the tendency for people with Asperger's to have trouble discerning subtle cues. It doesn't mean they cannot; it just means it takes a little longer for them to process the information. There is the tendency for people to not discern them at the moment of interaction, but to be able to discern them upon recollection later.

If you ever say that people with Asperger's lack empathy, you will probably lose everybody on the Site. Especially since this is not true at all; in fact, it's false.

Also: you must point out that Asperger's Syndrome is not within the DSM-V (the diagnostic format used in the US), though it's still in the ICD-10 (the diagnostic format used throughout most of the world).

I technically have (had?) PDD-NOS, since my autism is both technically on the profound end of subclinical and atypical (expressive language delay, but no receptive language delay). I'll answer this anyway.

I have a lot of trouble organizing my thoughts. Sometimes, I need more time to respond because of this.

I often leave out/confuse suffixes, and sometimes leave out words entirely when I type.

Most days, I rely on social scripts for all of my social interactions.

- Difficulty reading facial expressions, body language, sarcasm, humor
- Trouble with eye contact, speaking clearly & loudly enough
- Narrow interests means I'm bored with most NT conversations

Find my thread here that I made today about asking a friend for help and he got mad cuz I didn't understand - that will give a lot of in depth examples right there.

Hope it helps!

When I'm having a meltdown, I'm too stressed out to communicate what I want to say. I try to express myself but it's broken up by yelling and crying.

Well ... uhh ... it's sorta like ... um ... trying to say ... no, wait ... trying to find ... uh ... the right things ... words ... to ... uh ... say, and ...

(Oh crap! Now I look stupid! How can I get out of this situation? How do I get away?)

Does that answer your question?

For me recently -
- hate eye contact with a passion and refuse to do it
- have trouble understanding why what I'm saying is funny. I have had this recently that people will laugh (in the appreciative sense) and tell me I'm hilarious, and I have no idea why
- I don't understand why people are doing what they're doing - I recently got myself I over my head with a woman who started undressing in front of me and I had no idea what her intentions were or how I had communicated that this was in any way ok
- speech problems - I can't speak loudly so I'm hard to hear which gives the impression I'm timid which I am not. I'm also asked where I was born in my own country because I speak "differently" and people assume this is a foreign accent
- I find it difficult to imagine what it must be like to be someone else, to think and feel what they do because I don't, which makes relating to another's point of view difficult
- I don't do small talk, gossip or any other socially content-void behaviour and have to be conversing on a topic with actual information in it
- understanding and articulating feelings is difficult especially verbally
- I still occasionally have the echolalia effect going on, so I will simply parrot when I don't know what to say and a quick response is required
- I tend to behave formally when apparently casual interaction is now norm
Off the top of my head.

I can recognise subtle social cues very easily by instinct, I am also very tactful. Those are social skills I'm good at, which is unusual for an Aspie.

But I think my difficulties lie more around eccentric behaviour. I get an urge to behave inappropriately, like act a bit silly sometimes, never nasty or childish, just a bit annoying for other people's liking. I am aware of this, but I still do it, because I think I may have ADHD as well, so that explains my hyperactive behaviour.

But my communication difficulties seem to mostly be more typical social anxiety symptoms. I worry that I might say something stupid, I don't do very well in large groups, I get shy at social settings, I find it hard to have in-depth conversations (unless I know somebody very well), I think people are staring, making fun, talking about me, and I get temporarily traumatised if something humiliating happens to me in public or if I embarrassed myself.
So sometimes I like to hide away, or just stay quiet. I like socializing, being around people, and having/making friends, but at the same time I feel anxious about it. A lot of times I am seen with an anxious look on my face, probably because I'm thinking about something that is worrying me. That seems to make some people not want to say hello to me at work. Also I get more shy around some people than I do others, so sometimes I give off an unfriendly expression if I am feeling too shy.