I have noticed that many people that are (or very likely are) on the Autism spectrum have this really distinctive speech pattern. It’s hard to describe, but the best way to imagine how they sound is to hear somebody read something aloud. For many people, even good readers, they can speak normally, and read normally, but when reading something out loud they adopt this monotone pattern. I’ve noticed people on the Autism spectrum (the ones that are talkative, anyway), often do the same thing.
Is it just confirmation bias? Or do high functioning Autistics have a hard time modulating their voice? My friend’s cousin has this problem; he can’t seem to change the pitch or tone of his voice, only volume. Unfortunately, he replaces pitch and tone with volume. This means sometimes he talks really loud at really irregular intervals, which is jarring and distracting to people.
There are some things that people on the spectrum can remember extremely well- linear things like numbers, facts, and so forth. But sound, music, and speech are linear too, and so I’m surprised so many struggle with talking normally.
Confirmation bias is probably a big part of it. Probably in the majority of cases where you hear someone speak in that manner, you do not have independent confirmation that they have Asperger’s, nor do you know how many of your aquaintances who do not speak in that manner, meet the clinical criteria for being diagnosed with Asperger’s.
The pattern you describe, sounds to me like indicative of somebody who reads a lot and who has a strong tendency to think verbally and to arrange their thoughts into complete sentences before speaking them aloud. That’s hardly the same thing as having Asperger’s, although there may well be a positive correlation.
My friend has a high level Autistic daughter who’s about 9 now. They’re Australian and the mom says her daughter speaks with a Yank accent. She’s posted videos on youtube now and then. I’ve told the mom I can’t hear the daughter speaking with any accent at all, but that mom has a strong 'Strine accent. Then the mom goes into some nonsense about how everyone around her talks the way she does and doesn’t have an accent except her daughter.
Aussies… I wonder why they don’t fall off the bottom of the Earth.
What makes it more confusing is you’ll have people with the distinctive speech pattern who also claim to be autistic. But like a lot of popular internet diseases (Depression, Fibromyalgia, ADD) they are often self-diagnosed by the individual or their parents, and everybody just plays along as though they have it.
Part of the reason for this with autism is that while children can easily be diagnosed for free under a certain age, over 18 and not only is it hard and expensive to find a way to get diagnosed but often mental health professionals don’t want to do it at all.
If you came from a generation where your parents beat the oddness out of you and told you of the horrible fate that would befall you unless you faked normal it can be disheartening.
Moreover, speech abnormalities are frequently found in neuroatypical individuals in general. Individuals with schizophrenia and Tourette’s Syndrome, as well as those with ADHD, dyslexia, and developmental coordination disorder, often have difficulties sounding “normal”. So it’s no wonder that autism, even high-functioning autism, would be associated with the same thing.
Sample of one: a student (a good student who got an A in a course in math linguistics) talked at one volume, very loud, in a monotone, and. in. disconnected. words. Very unpleasant to deal with and he sometimes got away with stuff because the staff would rather accede to a request rather argue with him. Years later, I met his mother and she told me he was autistic, obviously high-performing and that he had got the only job she could imagine him getting as a computer programmer.
I have heard it conjectured that half of all mathematicians are autistic. Most of us talk normally. Well for some value of normal.
I had a professor in undergrad. A nice guy. But he had a rather disconnected way of speaking, and he was given to bizarre verbal automatisms.
Later I found out he had a severely autistic son. I suspect that this professor was quirky for the same reason that his son was quirky, but just in a more functional way.
It is genuine curiosity and thank you for the information, monstro. Like I’ve said before, my friend’s cousin has Asperger’s. Since I’ve understood why he acts the way he does, it becomes much easier to be more patient with him. He tries really hard to follow the ‘flow’ of the conversation. If you verbally ‘nudge’ him hard enough, he’ll get the hint and stop talking about anime and minecraft and so forth to ask what your own favorite cartoons are. But he always had this distinctive speech pattern that I have heard from a few youtube videos of people that had similar mannerisms. I wasn’t sure if it was an ‘Autistic’ speech pattern or I am just assuming because the person acts like X and talks like Y it must because of Autism’.
A friend of mine teaches autistic kids. She mentioned a few times that they often speak in “international” French rather than the Québec French spoken by their parents. It may have something to do with the speech heard on TV and in movies.
I’ve not noticed any actual distinctive pattern other than just being “off.” I used to think they always spoke more formally, but I find this doesn’t hold, either.
I have noticed some body language patterns, like not looking you in the eyes at all.