I was reading the paper "What can neurodiversity tell us about inner speech, and vice versa? A theoretical perspective".
It's new from last week (September 5th). It's a good lecture to better understand how inner speech works differently for us and how it shows in autists.
I read this:
"the apparent lack of verbal strategy in autistic participants did not make them worse at the task. This is consistent with a broader range of evidence highlighting that structural language skills and verbal IQ do not predict cognitive performance in autistic adults in a similar way to neurotypical individuals (e.g. Constable et al., 2018),suggesting that language in general may occupy a different place within autistic cognition."
This made perfect sense for me and how I work. I don't like to speak to myself. It's painful and it's not natural. I like to imagine with colors, patterns, images, objects, etc. I also need a situation with a place.
I fix a lot of things at home without the help of anyone for an example. The way I realize them in my brain before applying is autistic and not verbal.
@Autistrain@actuallyautistic@neurodiversity If I'm doing something like working on a website or a step-by-step project, then I talk to myself mostly so I keep the steps straight and don't skip ahead or jumble them all up. (#AuDHD here).
I like to visualize in pictures, but also find that my pictures are different from my spouse's who is a much more math/numbers oriented individual than I am.
I do that with checklists - usually in a spreadsheet. Mark everything off, and that way I don't get things jumbled or forget something, and I know it's all taken care of when I see that "x" in the box next to the task.
Beware the dreaded "-" - that means it not only isn't done, there's a problem preventing it from being done.
@Autistrain@actuallyautistic I am hyperphantastic (how do you say this without sounding like you’re bragging?), meaning I have very vivid imagination. I can visualize things with as much detail as they have irl, but also can imagine other senses accurately so I can imagine touch, smell, temperature etc.
I still think in words and sentences tho. I can think in other modes but I definitely prefer to have conversations with myself. I like writing my trains of thought too, it’s one of my favorite stims if the pen and paper combination feels good to write with. My favorite is a Lamy fountain pen on rhodia paper with a flowy ink that can make the pen glide without much feedback. Pure bliss.
All of what you wrote, except the writing. I used to have exceptional penmanship - seriously, I got compliments. Then I spent 40 years in front of a computer, typing everything. I might write one or two checks a year. I have to initial so many places it's become a glyph, not letters. When I write something I have to stop and think about it, and form things slowly if I want it to be legible.
@ScottSoCal@Autistrain@actuallyautistic To be clear, I’m not saying anything about legibility or penmanship. I’m doing the writing entirely as a stim, not with the purpose of obtaining a handwritten piece of text. It’s often full of errors, missing or misshapen letters, entirely absent words etc. it’s also the exact train of thought I have so there’s no discernible plot. Often there’s no context to clarify what any of it means.
Ah, OK. I also love the feel of a Cross 0.8mm ball point across paper. Not too scratchy, not too slippery - just right. I bought 2 pen bodies and 2 packs of refills, so I have it ready, at work or at home.
Smell, touch, etc. are image/pattern/colors. It depends on which one. But, I have hypersensitivity and often, I combine the image with the hypersensitivity. For example, if I smell a flower, my brain will interpret it as pins pricking the inside of my nose. It's purely an image in my brain.
@Autistrain@actuallyautistic What happens when you are engaged in more elaborate thinking, like when you’re trying to plan how to get somewhere? If I’m understanding you, you visually imagine the route and the means to get there without using any words.
How about other sounds than speech? If you imagine a train for example, does it also have sound?
When I think about going somewhere by train, I just internally talk about it conceptually. There’s no image, sound or other senses unless I specifically need to imagine those aspects of a train.
Weird, because I'm autistic and I'm hyperverbal and hyperlexic. I have no visual imagery in my brain or my memories at all; never have. My memories are verbal descriptions of stuff, along with auditory, taste, touch, and scent memories - but there's no images there at all.
@TeacherGriff@Autistrain@actuallyautistic@neurodiversity
🙋 Same. Do you also experience SDAM (severely deficient autobiographical memory)? Because whoa my mind was blown when I learned the term to describe my memory access experiences.
The paper is about inner speech. My quotation is to show that inner speech in autists is different, occur differently, and occupies a different place in cognition.
I speak a lot and can speak for hours. But, my inner speech isn't the experience of talking to oneself in one’s head. It's different and has different effect on my cognition than for NTs.
@Autistrain@TeacherGriff@actuallyautistic@neurodiversity I have an inner voice, but it's not my primary way of thinking, I get the sense that it kind of "floats" on top of my thoughts, which are more of a vicseral body sense with some visuals, like the feeling of moving through a dark place. When I get really emotional though, it's like the words get caught up in a storm. So if I try to speak in those moments, I often grab the wrong words and say things I didn't intend to say
Add comment