Have you found communications courses helpful?

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I'm sure that many of my fellow Aspies have taken communications courses, but did you find it helpful?

I must have taken about a half dozen of them at least, in a classroom setting, through work...of my own volition, not because I was forced to (although I did have a couple of co-workers gently tell me that I could benefit from one, back when). I've also taken some online.

Many of the concepts make sense, like paraphrasing to ensure understanding, avoiding interruption or premature bias, assertive communication speaking to facts and consequences rather than feelings, etc. However - and this seem to be the bane of our existence - it's when we try to practice the learned concepts in a spontaneous setting that we can't seem to consistently apply them to best effect.

Heck, even in the communications classes we'd do role-play, and when I did a role-play scenario where the participants had to remark on our "performance" afterwards, I always got positive feedback that my response and body language were right on target. Of course, that's because things were rehearsed and not spontaneous.

Hence the famous Aspergian gap between theoretical and applied knowledge. It's not just for practical tasks but for communication skills as well (the very definition of "skill" being applied knowledge).

But maybe you agree with me on this - if you "recharge your batteries" every so often, i.e. resolve to taking at least one communications course a year, you can give your performance a boost in everyday spontaneous scenarios, and build some momentum.

Eh, I aced an interpersonal communications course and earned a solid "A" in a multicultural communications course, both in college, but am still described as communicating in a "weird" or "off-putting" manner.

Academic stuff such as "dyads" and "Johari circles" are a bunch of bull crap. They sound interesting enough to get tons of people to pay tuition for the courses, though.

I completed those courses only because they were required by my degree program, which itself was a total waste. (I'm a 2007 graduate -- English major -- who has cooked for a dive-y pizza place since 2008 without a single promotion despite my "academically sound" communication skills.)

I earned a bachelor's in Communications Studies. It wasn't until my recent diagnosis that I realized why I was drawn to the subject. I excelled in the subject, except for the sections on interpersonal communications. I had trouble understanding that. However, I found much of the information very useful in life. I would strongly recommend Communications Studies to other Aspies.

i have done a few of those courses.
even tough most concepts they told me about are alien and not something i could apply without extreme effort, they did help: they tought me how neurotypicals think, so i am now a lot better to identify the mistakes i make in communicating

I agree that in-depth studies in communication can help us - we just have to apply them several times and use trial and error. It can take years.

I remember one time when doing sales training when I finished post-secondary school, the instructor told the class that up to 93% of communication is unspoken; the words only count for 7% of the message, the tone 26%, and body language 67%. Yes, I know those stats have been often quoted, but it's one of the cornerstones of communication. The instructor first asked us to guess the percentage. And it was uncanny how NONE of the neurotypicals guessed 93%, the highest guess I think was like 60% or something.

On that, we were astounded for different reasons; I because I didn't realize that I was supposed to communicate nonverbally to such an extent; the neurotypicals because that's what they'd been doing all along but they had no idea it was that high of a percentage because it was so unconscious and second-nature to them.

But I barely lasted a week in it "the field", I quit because I hated it,. Applying the communications concepts just didn't feel natural to me. It took years of practice to make them more natural.