Being Succinct
Does anyone have trouble being concise in their words and, if so, are there any ways you have found to mitigate this/compensate for it?
I am in the last year of grad school, doing a practicum, and several people have commented on this as something they see as a problem/weakness. I have struggled with it all my life. Even when writing assignments, I often spend hours writing in too much detail and cutting out lots of it after due to it being redundant. As a result, it takes me significantly longer to do written assignments than it takes others.
This is also the reason I have had to script my seminars as a TA; anything open-ended just sends me into a rut of trying to pick out the relevant bits (it can take LOTS of thinking to pick out the right relevant bits). It always feels like everything crashes down on me initially and if I don't get the time to piece things together in my head and work through aggregating the details (which I really don't anymore), I often just end up retaining everything as this huge mess.
When I try to make things short and concise from the get-go, though, I miss the point and people need to ask more questions to get the right info out of me. So I've learned to stay on the safe side and just give more details than needed.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
My verbal utterances, I just have to deal with them and people just have to tolerate them. But for my important writing, I have to use an editor.
_________________
"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."
Wreck It Ralph
SilverProteus
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Joined: 20 Jul 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,915
Location: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
Yes. When I am really doing well and I can speak clearly, I will let people in my life know the different ways that my speech can become affected when I am overwhelmed or stressed. I also let them know how my levels of comprehension and ability to understand and process things can change drastically as well. If I find it hard to verbalize this stuff to them, I will usually email them about it in pretty extensive detail. And I ask them to please understand and be patient with me because these are not things that I can help. I don't do them on purpose, it's just how my brain responds to certain situations. I will even explain to them in advance that there are times that I can become completely mute as well. I have a friend who is really good at helping me explain things to others when I can't do it myself. I have his permission to have people call him and ask him questions that can help them understand what is happening to me if they need to. But that would be in extreme cases.
Usually if I just let people know in advance either in written form or when I can actually speak well, I find that they are very understanding and helpful. I also carry a little card I made in my wallet to explain this to people. But I think that for you in an academic setting where people should be more educated, having a card that you can show them to explain what you have trouble expressing verbally might be a really good idea. Sometimes I also ask people if I can just text them as well rather than being verbal and people seem to be very good about that.
Even if you don't want to disclose that you are Autistic, I do but I understand those who don't, people will still understand if you tell them you have a condition that affects your speech, either on a card or when you are able to speak well. You don't have to tell them what the condition is. They tend to be very understanding once you let them know.
_________________
"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."
Wreck It Ralph
Usually if I just let people know in advance either in written form or when I can actually speak well, I find that they are very understanding and helpful. I also carry a little card I made in my wallet to explain this to people. But I think that for you in an academic setting where people should be more educated, having a card that you can show them to explain what you have trouble expressing verbally might be a really good idea. Sometimes I also ask people if I can just text them as well rather than being verbal and people seem to be very good about that.
Even if you don't want to disclose that you are Autistic, I do but I understand those who don't, people will still understand if you tell them you have a condition that affects your speech, either on a card or when you are able to speak well. You don't have to tell them what the condition is. They tend to be very understanding once you let them know.
I wonder, and this is just a question for anyone out there who might know, is there any information (read: empirical evidence) that ties this difference to the condition and shows how difficult to change this can be?
I am in a place where people push me really hard to improve in every domain and I need to show that some things are just not practical for me to target for change right now.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
Usually if I just let people know in advance either in written form or when I can actually speak well, I find that they are very understanding and helpful. I also carry a little card I made in my wallet to explain this to people. But I think that for you in an academic setting where people should be more educated, having a card that you can show them to explain what you have trouble expressing verbally might be a really good idea. Sometimes I also ask people if I can just text them as well rather than being verbal and people seem to be very good about that.
Even if you don't want to disclose that you are Autistic, I do but I understand those who don't, people will still understand if you tell them you have a condition that affects your speech, either on a card or when you are able to speak well. You don't have to tell them what the condition is. They tend to be very understanding once you let them know.
I wonder, and this is just a question for anyone out there who might know, is there any information (read: empirical evidence) that ties this difference to the condition and shows how difficult to change this can be?
I am in a place where people push me really hard to improve in every domain and I need to show that some things are just not practical for me to target for change right now.
I do believe there is documentation that can help people understand your predicament. I did tons of research on Autism and Asperger's as it became sort of a special interest of mine once I realized I was Aspie. The only problem is that I just do the research for my own satisfaction and enjoyment and to educate myself better on myself so unfortunately I don't keep records of documents or articles that could help you. But if you have a formal diagnosis, you can get the diagnostician who did it for you do write up some documentation to help people understand that this is a very real thing for you and it is physiological. It is not a matter of will power or just wanting to do better. There are actual neurological issues at play here.
If I were in that situation, I would disclose to the people whom you feel it would be helpful to disclose to. Because this is a neurological thing and there are certain areas in which you will simply not be able to do things as they want you to do them. So if they can make the right accommodations for you that will really help you excel at what you do. And the accommodations don't have to be huge massive endeavors. Sometimes even just allowing you more time might be enough for you to be able to do well. It could be very simple things like that.
_________________
"I'm bad and that's good. I'll never be good and that's not bad. There's no one I'd rather be than me."
Wreck It Ralph
I take in new information in an extremely piecemeal way, it seems. I think that also relates to why when I have taken in too much in too brief a period of time, I can become totally incoherent verbally. Words are a way to condense information already and it seems to be challenging to do that to begin with.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
I do believe there is documentation that can help people understand your predicament. I did tons of research on Autism and Asperger's as it became sort of a special interest of mine once I realized I was Aspie. The only problem is that I just do the research for my own satisfaction and enjoyment and to educate myself better on myself so unfortunately I don't keep records of documents or articles that could help you. But if you have a formal diagnosis, you can get the diagnostician who did it for you do write up some documentation to help people understand that this is a very real thing for you and it is physiological. It is not a matter of will power or just wanting to do better. There are actual neurological issues at play here.
If I were in that situation, I would disclose to the people whom you feel it would be helpful to disclose to. Because this is a neurological thing and there are certain areas in which you will simply not be able to do things as they want you to do them. So if they can make the right accommodations for you that will really help you excel at what you do. And the accommodations don't have to be huge massive endeavors. Sometimes even just allowing you more time might be enough for you to be able to do well. It could be very simple things like that.
I am almost looking for a good study (e.g., comparing scores across the ASD and typical population) that I could present and say "look, this is something that is a prominent characteristic. If anyone could point me toward something like that or find a direct source, it would mean the world to me. I am not sure what this phenomenon would be called, even.
_________________
Leading a double life and loving it (but exhausted).
Likely ADHD instead of what I've been diagnosed with before.
I do believe there is documentation that can help people understand your predicament. I did tons of research on Autism and Asperger's as it became sort of a special interest of mine once I realized I was Aspie. The only problem is that I just do the research for my own satisfaction and enjoyment and to educate myself better on myself so unfortunately I don't keep records of documents or articles that could help you. But if you have a formal diagnosis, you can get the diagnostician who did it for you do write up some documentation to help people understand that this is a very real thing for you and it is physiological. It is not a matter of will power or just wanting to do better. There are actual neurological issues at play here.
If I were in that situation, I would disclose to the people whom you feel it would be helpful to disclose to. Because this is a neurological thing and there are certain areas in which you will simply not be able to do things as they want you to do them. So if they can make the right accommodations for you that will really help you excel at what you do. And the accommodations don't have to be huge massive endeavors. Sometimes even just allowing you more time might be enough for you to be able to do well. It could be very simple things like that.
I am almost looking for a good study (e.g., comparing scores across the ASD and typical population) that I could present and say "look, this is something that is a prominent characteristic. If anyone could point me toward something like that or find a direct source, it would mean the world to me. I am not sure what this phenomenon would be called, even.
Go to google scholar. Do a search on Pragmatic Language Impairment, Selective Language Impairment, Autism verbosity. Also can be related to Theory of Mind, supposed core deficit in Autism.