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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
“High-functioning autism” isn't an official medical term or diagnosis. It's an informal one some people use when they talk about people with an autism spectrum disorder who can speak, read, write, and handle basic life skills like eating and getting dressed. They can live independently.
Symptoms of Atypical Autism
Communication difficulties: They may have difficulty with verbal and nonverbal communication, such as understanding sarcasm or body language. Repetitive behaviors: People with atypical autism may engage in repetitive behaviors, such as hand flapping or rocking back and forth.
Stimming, which is a nickname for “self-stimulatory behavior” is a repetitive behavior such as head banging, hand flapping, rocking, or making noises or sounds that helps a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to self-soothe.
Self-stimulatory behavior is not unique to individuals on the autism spectrum and can be seen in neurotypical individuals as well.
When we're talking about spoken language, idiosyncrasies are when someone uses normal words or phrases in an abnormal way—the word will be a real word in the speaker's native language, but it won't actually be associated with whatever he/she is referring to.
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.
Some forms involve stereotyped and repetitive motor mannerisms or use of language. Common examples of stereotypy are hand flapping, body rocking, toe walking, spinning objects, sniffing, immediate and delayed echolalia, and running objects across one's peripheral vision (Schreibman, Heyser, & Stahmer, 1999).
Although individuals with Asperger Syndrome may not appear to have any speech and language difficulties, they will experience difficulties with their higher levels of language, this will often cause them to be 'socially awkward' and be more susceptible to bullying and teasing at school.
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.
This is called echolalia. use made-up words. say the same word over and over. confuse pronouns, referring to themselves as 'you' and the person they're talking to as 'I'.
Vocal stimming, also known as auditory stimming, is self-stimulatory behaviour that involves the use of the mouth, lips and vocal cords. It can also involve the use of ears.
Masking is a word used to describe something seen in many children with ASD – when they learn, practice, and perform certain behaviours and suppress others in order to be more like the people around them.
Auditory stimming uses the person's sense of hearing and sound. It may include behaviors such as: vocal sounds, such as humming. tapping on objects or ears, covering and uncovering ears, and finger-snapping. repetitive speech.
Repeating what others say is referred to as echolalia and it is a symptom of both autism and Tourette syndrome. Another complex vocal tic is coprolalia which involves unintentional occurrences of inappropriate or obscene vocalizations. This can cause severe disruption in many areas of a person's life.
People who are neurodivergent often feel that they need to hide or decrease their self-stimulatory behavior, as it often elicits an undesirable response from those who do not understand the compulsion behind them.