Alphabet Soup: On Language and Speaking

(Photo from Google Images)

I have a documented verbal IQ of 134, and a vocabulary in the 99th percentile.  My phonics decoding skill is in the 96th percentile, and my oral language is in the 94th.  I am, for all intents and purposes, a gifted speaker, a master of language.  Why then, under the right circumstances, does my speech fail me, my IQ get cut in half?  Why, for all my strengths, do I get left a stammering monkey, unable to form an intelligible sentence or even a word, when faced with anger, frustration, fear, rage?

In situations like that, I am reminded all too clearly that autism is, at its core, a communication disability.  It has been documented that in general, high functioning autistics have a higher verbal than nonverbal IQ, with the opposite being true for those on the lower end of the spectrum (this is certainly true for me: at 94, my nonverbal IQ is a full 40 points below my verbal IQ.)  Because of this fact, and because of the intelligence and verbosity that many on the spectrum demonstrate, it can be easy to forget that, even for the high-functioning individuals, autism is still a disability of social communication, of which speech is a vital part.

What that means, is that even the most well-spoken of us can have a hard time saying what we want to when our minds are overloaded with more pressing stimuli.  It is as if the emotions completely scramble the wiring of our speech centres, making speaking a challenge, even when we know exactly what we want to say.  It is for this reason that we can become violent, lashing out physically at the people and objects around us, or simply screaming unintelligibly.  It is extremely disconcerting to suddenly lose your powers of speech, to discover that one of your greatest strengths has instantaneously deserted you.  It is also highly frustrating to have this happen at the most inopportune moments, such as when we are attempting to explain ourselves, or defend our position, or get something we urgently need to return to a state of mental normalcy.  You would get violent too if your speech were suddenly and inexplicably robbed from you, especially if you were left stuttering and repeating the same word over and over like a stuck record, with no one to lift the needle from the groove.  It is alarming to hear yourself saying the same thing over and over again, not knowing if or when it will stop, allowing you to move on to the next word, and not knowing how long your audience is going to wait you out and try to listen.  Time is of the essence in situations such as that, and its the one thing you can feel physically trickling away as you try to untangle your tongue and your brain.

It is important when we get like this, that we be given time, patience, and understanding.  Do not try to rush us, or shout over the top of us.  Do not make fun of us by repeating the syllables we manage to get out.  If you are fighting with us, step back and wait until we can speak again; do not walk away, as we may panic or become enraged, thinking you are leaving without having heard our side.  Do not use our loss of language to your advantage, treating our lack of intelligible speech as a silence into which you can continue to insert your own thoughts; that will only confuse us as we try to process both our speech and yours, and will only make everything worse.  Be patient, wait with us until we can speak again; speech often returns with calm, which will be advantageous if you are arguing with us; it gives everyone time to pause and think.  If our silence lasts a long time, or does not appear to be returning, offer alternate methods of communication: texting, writing, sign language; do not stop communicating with us just because we cannot currently do so in a normal fashion.  Trying to talk to someone who has suddenly had their language drop out on them is hard, but it’s not as hard as trying to be that someone.

 

Xavier’s X-Men: On the Fallacy of Aspie Supremacy

(Photo from Google images)

There is a curious notion that has taken hold in the past few years, born of frustration and anger at the discrimination and misunderstanding autistics have been met with for decades.  It is the idea that autistics are somehow superior to normal humans, that we are the next stage in evolution.

There are those who believe that aspie logic, blatant honesty, ability to hyper-focus, sensory sensitivity, and the occasional savantism we are given are, if you will, “super powers” similar to those held by Stan Lee’s comic book heroes, the X-Men.  The X-Men analogy is in fact quite appropriate, given how it parallels the current situation.  Professor Charles Xavier and his X-Men are mutants, humans with super powers that make them different, and feared by normal “homo sapiens”.  This fear has led humans to discriminate against and oppress mutants, treating them as lesser people.  In response some of the mutants, such as Magneto and his “brotherhood of evil mutants”, have banded together in an effort to overthrow humanity and regain control of the world for mutant kind, to be ruled by these “homo superior”.

Being the good guys of course, Professor X and his X-Men cannot stand by and let such attacks occur, in spite of the oppression they are still experiencing at the hands of humans.  It is Xavier’s dream that one day humans and mutants can live together as equals, without fear or hatred.

My point of course is not that autistics are super-human, or that we all have super powers.  The point is that I want those who believe in autistic supremacy to understand that the things that make us different from NTs do not inherently make us better than them.  At the same time, I say to the NTs who contribute to our 90% unemployment rate because they see us as odd or mentally disabled, to the parents in the news who murder their autistic children, to the rehabilitative schools who try to correct our autistic behaviour through abuse and electric shock treatment, you are not better than us either.  We are not mutants to be feared, degraded, abused, or misunderstood.  We are human beings, just like you are.  We all deserve to live in a world where NTs and autistics can live together as equals, without fear on either side.  I want to see Xavier’s dream come true.