Some children with ASD speak in a high-pitched or sing-song voice or use robot-like speech. Other children may use stock phrases to start a conversation. For example, a child may say, “My name is Tom,” even when he talks with friends or family.
Children with autism often sound different from other people. Some may speak in a flat, monotone voice; others may use unusual modulation or stress different words or parts of words in their speech; and some may speak at an increased volume.
Clinical reports have variously referred to the speech of individuals with ASD as “monotone”, “robotic”, “staccato”, “jerky”, and “sing-songy” and inconsistent prosody has been described as among the first identifiable characteristics that can create an impression of “oddness” among children with ASD.
Individuals with autism frequently have difficulties with articulation, often as part of a broader problem of difficulty with oral-motor functions (movements of the lips and tongue and associated breath control).
This type of repetitive speech occurs immediately after you say something to your child. For example, you may ask them, “Do you want a snack?” and they may repeat it back to you as an echo. This is immediate echolalia.
One of the most common is monotonous speech. This means that they may speak in a flat, monotone voice. They may also use the same pitch and inflection regardless of the situation. Another common speech pattern in toddlers with Asperger's is stilted speech.
Vocal stimming involves making sounds with your mouth or breath. Examples of vocal stimming include: verbal noises. humming. shrieking.
Autistic deficits cluster into three groups: communication-related, social and physical deficits. Communication deficits include people with autism's difficulty using spoken language and gestures, inability to initiate and sustain appropriate conversation and use of inappropriate, repetitive language.
In psychiatry, stilted speech or pedantic speech is communication characterized by situationally inappropriate formality. This formality can be expressed both through abnormal prosody as well as speech content that is "inappropriately pompous, legalistic, philosophical, or quaint".
People with autism often speak with a different rhythm, prosody, and/or volume than typical peers. Thus, even if the words themselves are appropriate, they may sound flat, loud, soft, or otherwise different. It's not unusual for people with autism to "script" their conversations.
They might be slower to develop language, have no language at all, or have significant problems with understanding or using spoken language. They might not use gestures to make up for the problems they have with words. Autistic children tend to communicate mostly to ask for something or to protest.
Aspergers speech patterns often seem odd to people who don't know them. Tone, intonation and volume are often restricted, seemingly inappropriate, or at appear at odds with what is being said. Children with Aspergers also have difficulty interpreting and displaying non-verbal communication.
While kids with ASD [High-Functioning Autism] may have begun talking at an appropriate age, they often used a rather long-winded (and sometimes rather concrete or literal) style of speaking. Pedantic describes speech that is overly-focused on the details of its topic.
When children with autism speak they sound different from most people. Their speech usually follows one of several characteristic patterns: Some talk in a flat, toneless voice, others in an exaggerated, hyper way that doesn't match the subject matter.
The 'autism accent'.
Professionals would describe this as abnormal speech patterns. I'm not sure what specifically is different about our voices, but some autistic people find that they are often asked about their voice or accent. I have been. In primary school other kids used to mock my voice.
Often, the loudness, pitch, rate, and nasality of pedantic speech vary from normal speech, resulting in the perception of pedantic or stilted speaking. For example, overly loud or high-pitched speech can come across to listeners as overly forceful while slow or nasal speech creates an impression of condescension.
The prosody of ASD speech has been variously described as sounding “robotic,” “wooden,” “stilted,” “monotone,” “bizarre,” “over precise,” and even “singsong” (Fay and Schuler, 1980; Baltaxe and Simmons, 1985; Frith, 1991; Baron-Cohen and Staunton, 1994).
Stilted speech: odd language use that may be excessively formal, pompous, outdated, or quaint. Self-reference: The patient is liable to refer the subject of conversation back to him/herself.
Speech patterns may also be unusual in a child with autism due to a fluency disorder referred to as cluttering speech. Cluttering makes speech sound fast and/or irregular, phrases are repeated, excessive filler words may be relied on, and pausing patterns may be different from the norm.
People diagnosed with autism normally use idiosyncratic speech that make little sense to those who are not familiar with them. These individuals also use odd tones, where the speeches are characterized by rises at the end of sentences and are rather monotonous.
Hyperlexia is advanced and unexpected reading skills and abilities in children way beyond their chronological age. It is a fairly recently named condition (1967) although earlier descriptions of precocious reading do exist.
Stimming can take many different forms: visual: staring off into space, drawing, spinning things like pens or coins. verbal/auditory: repeating sounds, excessive giggling, constantly clearing throat. tactile: rubbing fingers, chewing/biting nails, chewing the inside of cheeks.
unusual body movements – for example, rocking back and forth while sitting or standing. posturing – for example, holding hands or fingers out at an angle or arching the back while sitting. visual stimulation – for example, looking at something sideways, watching an object spin or fluttering fingers near the eyes.