monotone voice
auntblabby
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My son speaks very quietly. So quietly that everyone strains to hear him and misses half of what he says.
Hundreds of times I have said "Crank up the volume. I can't hear you".
This only makes him frustrated and angry. For some reason he really can't speak any louder.
Sometimes I have yelled at him. Once he showed me a cereal box crawling with weevils
I yelled "ARRGH! GET IT OUT OF HERE. THROW IT IN THE BIN!"
He just stood there like a deer caught by a spotlight.
Afterwords he said "You yelled at me"
I said "Yes but I wasn't angry with you. I was just emotional and wanted something done right away"
He can't see that. He equates a loud voice with a personal attack.
Can depend on your tone of voice. If you've got quite a lowish voice (like I have), you can mumble a little more - although it's not always treue, so don't take it as a fact. If your voice is high and loud, sometimes your tone can vary more. (I'm talking about women here)
And for men:-
Most men have to raise their voice quite loud if they want to speak with lots of expression and ''colours'' in their voice, whilst other men may tend to mumble if they speak quietly, obviously due to their deep voice. . That's probably why men interact differently to women.
This applies to all men - not just Aspie men
You should record material and listen to your voice and hear it as others hear it. I record books for the blind and in doing so I have improved my locution. I can put some energy into my reading so it isn't monotone humdrum.
ruveyn
I do. Someone once suggested to me that amateur dramatics might help. I never took that up. I did seriously consider going to a voice coach though.
My parents say I sounded like Ben Stine as a kid. A LOUD Ben Stine. My mother had frequent migranes as a result of a childhood head injury, but I think I stressed her out so much, three thirds of her migranes were my fault. Anyway, I'm still told I am too loud but I wish my parents would have let me sound like Ben Stine. But I can probably rival John Moschitta Jr in a speech race I needed speech therapy as a kid because I talked so fast no one could understand me.
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I'm not weird, you're just too normal.
I'm not sure if this is true or not (so don't go thinking I'm trying to offend or thinking I'm right or anything), but this is just what I've read somewhere. I've read that sometimes talking in a monotone means lack of confidence. And I've had personal experience of this too. When I'm with my family or friends, I don't speak in monotone at all. I have a ''colourful'' voice, and sound just like anyone else. But when I speak to some people, eg some colleagues at work who make me feel quite shy or agitated, or especially customers, I tend to speak in monotone, and if I ''break'' the monotoned voice, I stutter or mumble instead, or if I try not to stutter or mumble I tend to go all stiff in my arms and legs as though I'm clenching up inside. Although I don't generally suffer any speech delays or speech problems, sometimes I even pronounce things wrongly (which I don't normally do), or I use incorrect grammar (which is unusual for me too). I might miss out an ''S'' in a word, or use the wrong plural - and I hate this because it makes me sound really stupid, especially when I know this isn't my normal character to talk like this. If I keep it at a monotone, I don't tend to make these mistakes, but then speaking in monotone might make people (especially strangers) think I sound unconfident. Also if I try to use the same voice to customers as I do my family and friends (which is my normal voice), I tend to ''use the wrong tone for one word'', if you know what I mean. You know when you're playing a song (with one hand) on a piano, and you press the next key next to the correct key by mistake? That's what sometimes happens to the correct tones of the correct words of my voice.
For example:-
Look at the sentence ''I didn't take the money''. If you had borrowed the money and had asked someone to borrow it first, then somebody was accusing you of taking the money, you would say, ''I didn't take the money,'' but if I was saying this to a stranger or a person making me feel nervous (without using a monotoned voice), I would probably accidentally say it like this, ''I didn't take the money'', or something like that. That is the closest example I could think of. But I know how to do and say these things, because I speak fine to family and friends, or strangers who I feel rather comfortable with.
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auntblabby
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Joined: 12 Feb 2010
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Location: the island of defective toy santas
thank you for saying this, i am the same way, and it is so good to read of somebody else going through the same thing.
auntblabby
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Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,740
Location: the island of defective toy santas
Perfect for speaking Aspergese
i suppose aspergerese has a certain under-appreciated utility, but it sure would be nice to be additionally fluent in a sexy dialect of NTese for those certain special occasions.
Yup. It is much less of one than when I was younger, but my voice is still relatively flat, low, and quiet. I was rather surprised, last year, when a friend I was joking with burst out laughing even though I didn't think what I said was THAT funny. When I asked her about it, she said "you say the funniest things, and in such a monotone too!!" Lol
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JeremyNJ1984
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Joined: 9 Oct 2010
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 496
Location: Central New Jersey
Hundreds of times I have said "Crank up the volume. I can't hear you".
This only makes him frustrated and angry. For some reason he really can't speak any louder.
Sometimes I have yelled at him. Once he showed me a cereal box crawling with weevils
I yelled "ARRGH! GET IT OUT OF HERE. THROW IT IN THE BIN!"
He just stood there like a deer caught by a spotlight.
Afterwords he said "You yelled at me"
I said "Yes but I wasn't angry with you. I was just emotional and wanted something done right away"
He can't see that. He equates a loud voice with a personal attack.
Does your son also know your a neo-nazi?