Do Aspies ALWAYS escape "language issues"?
As far as I know, my language development was normal, but as an adult I've noticed something.
There are times I'll try to say something, and it refuses to come out right. It may be as simple as choosing a word that isn't quite right, whereas a word of similar meaning would have been the right choice. I may structure a sentence poorly. Once in a while I'll just LOSE a word out of my vocabulary, and I'll freeze mid-sentence realizing I don't know what to say. (First time I noted it, I actually lost the word "string" for about two or three minutes. Then, it popped back into my head and all was well.)
I'm not sure if these things happened when I was a kid or not, but they sure do now.
Normally, I do okay, but once in a while...
Is it possible for someone to be "mostly an Aspie", but sort of overlap into more classic Autism as well?
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AQ 31
Your Aspie score: 100 of 200 / Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 101 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits
What would these results mean? Been told here I must be a "half pint".
Are you sure that doesn’t happen to neurotypicals?
It’s certainly happened to me a lot of times, and it made me feel bad for not working enough on my vocabulary.
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The red lake has been forgotten. A dust devil stuns you long enough to shroud forever those last shards of wisdom. The breeze rocking this forlorn wasteland whispers in your ears, “Não resta mais que uma sombra”.
It’s certainly happened to me a lot of times, and it made me feel bad for not working enough on my vocabulary.
Maybe it does, but it's not a vocabulary issue. It's like the neuropathways got sidetracked to the wrong word, or just plain got blocked temporarily. The words are there, but for some reason I lose access or connect to the wrong word...briefly, but long enough to mess up what I'm saying.
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AQ 31
Your Aspie score: 100 of 200 / Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 101 of 200
You seem to have both Aspie and neurotypical traits
What would these results mean? Been told here I must be a "half pint".
Yes, I think so. I've got very good language skills most of the time, but they go downhill as my stress levels increase. It starts with me struggling to find the words for things. Then I get tongue-tied--the syllables get mixed up or distorted, and I stutter. I can picture what I want to say, but can't think of the word for it. If I am extremely stressed, up to having a meltdown, no words will come at all. I can think my thoughts in pictures but can't think of any spoken words. I realized after reading Temple Grandin's book, the Autistic Brain, that I actually think in pictures and patterns, and then assign English words to the images. The more stressed I am, the worse this picture-to-English translator works, until it shuts down.
My completely nonverbal periods usually only last a half hour or so, but I was nonverbal for two days after a car wreck. I was four years old, and not only did I not have words for anything, I had forgotten that there was ever such a thing as language. I didn't know I was supposed to talk, and I was unaware that people were talking to me.
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Diagnosed Bipolar II in 2012, Autism spectrum disorder (moderate) & ADHD in 2015.
StarTrekker
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I have a similar problem. Despite being verbally gifted (VIQ 134), I still lose words out of my vocabulary sometimes, and I can't find the words I want to finish my sentence correctly. It happens more often on the phone, so I tend to talk in a slow, halting fashion, which makes people interrupt me because they think I'm breaking up or they missed what I said, so I have to start over. When I'm stressed or approaching the meltdown zone, I'll know the words I want to say, and I'm screaming the sentences in my head, but my mouth refuses to cooperate, and all that comes out is gibberish, or I'll stutter and get stuck on words. It's very frustrating.
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"Survival is insufficient" - Seven of Nine
Diagnosed with ASD level 1 on the 10th of April, 2014
Rediagnosed with ASD level 2 on the 4th of May, 2019
Thanks to Olympiadis for my fantastic avatar!
btbnnyr
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Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
This happens to me somewhat often. Its part of the reason talking to people I don't know makes me anxious. It means I have to be more spontaneous with communication. I'll know what I want to say but Ioose the words. Also, its often simple everyday words like cat food or cement. Sometimes I'll remember hours later and suprise people by randomly saying, "syrup! The word was syrup." Then it seems so silly I would have forgotten it. Though it can be frustrating I've gotten quite used to it and let the word come back on its own time.
Sometimes the opposite happens and I'll have some less used word floating around in my head. Rather than losing it I keep thinking of it. Current one is mellifluous, the one before it was portmanteau.
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Female | Suspected Aspergers | Tolkienist | Ravenclaw | Whovian
"I do not wish to evade the world
Yet I will forever build my own" - Tuomas Holopainen
I haven't gotten the spoons to post the results on my blog yet, but one of my surveys showed that around 55% of my autistic respondents (note, these were people high-functioning enough to fill out a survey about themselves) had language issues of some form or other. Around 30% of my sample had significant variability in expressive and/or receptive language function, such as losing speech when overloaded.
I didn't split it up by diagnosis, but 60% of my sample were diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, so clearly some Aspies have language issues.
I really should get around to posting these results on my blog soon.
Neurotypicals do have. This problem. I would say it happens to me more than neurotypicals. Sometimes I also get a stutter where I can't move past the first letter. Or completely the wrong word comes out.
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Diagnosed with:
Moderate Hearing Loss in 2002.
Autism Spectrum Disorder in August 2015.
ADHD diagnosed in July 2016
Also "probable" dyspraxia/DCD and dyslexia.
Plus a smattering of mental health problems that have now been mostly resolved.
For me, this is more apt to occur during unstructured, ad hoc conversation, particularly on those topics that I do not think about frequently. Also, there are some topics (e.g. politics, religion, etc.) where I have thoughts/opinions, but -- for whatever reason -- I am unable to articulate those in a meaningful/understandable manner.
Interestingly, this rarely occur often at work. Perhaps, because I am always thinking through various scenarios and contingencies.
I speak in a soft, mumbling voice, so people often can't hear me. When I was a baby, I used sounds instead of words.
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This is me almost exactly except I didn't start speaking until I was almost 4, and instead of stuttering, I will speak complete gibberish.
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I finally found an avatar.
I was speech delayed but I don't think I was language delayed. I was hyperlexic and it is pretty well accepted in my family that I could read before I could speak. Speech came between 2 and 3 years of age with speech therapy. From then on I always had an advanced vocabulary and used it. However, I have problems with paraphrasing and have been called a human dictionary or encyclopedia.
When I get upset, I have increased difficulty communicating verbally and I can't get out what I want to say the way I want to say it so the other person understands. I get around this by writing what I want to say and exchanging letters with the person or people involved.
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Diagnosed Asperger's - 2007
Current AQ score: 43
Current PDD score: 105 - moderate
http://www.childbrain.com/pddassess.html
-Socially awkward and special interests don't mean autism.-
I spoke at 5 1/2, read before then. When I was 5 1/2, in fact, I just picked up a book and read it--no problem. I remember this. It was "Green Eggs and Ham," by Dr. Seuss. I hated ham then!
I was not able to write until I was six. I used to pretend to write by scribbling. One day, when I was six, my father showed me how my name is written. I copied it. From that time, I knew how to write. I couldn't dress myself until then, either.
I have a slight stutter which gets worse under stress. I'm not totally linguistically-intact--in the sense that I tend to use simple words when more substantial words are possible. You might notice that in my posts. I'm a decent writer, though.
I have trouble with auditory processing of language. Sometimes, I can't follow multi-step directions; I need things repeated sometimes.
With the spoken word it often takes me a while to put things into words properly, though I've been known to be quite fluent at times. I think it's partly my perfectionism, judging what I say as severely lacking if it isn't absolutely crystal-clear as well as interesting. I tend to get verbose in pursuit of clarity, which risks putting the audience off.
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