What does it mean to be non-verbal?

Post Reply New Topic

I always had this preconceived notion that it meant "not being able to talk"; mute/dumb.

I learned to speak, read, etc, fairly early in life (1-3 yrs), but I never employed these skills to have meaningful conversations and I recall going out in public and tugging on my moms coat to have her order food for me because I was unable to talk to the cashier. My parents even told me that I was fairly quite as a child around family friends, and even at school I would never speak unless spoken to. I still to these days rely on family members to speak for me on certain occassions.

Would this classify me as non-verbal? I'm just having trouble understanding this concept--which should be easy to comprehend.

EXCELLENT QUESTION!

There is involuntary non-verbal.

There is voluntary non-verbal.

Voluntary -- I've heard of some people taking a vow of silence, and others deciding to be mute. All for various reasons. Some to fake it. Some for another therapeutic reason.

Involuntary -- Simply cannot talk. Some may improve to some extents.

Actually nonverbal can mean many things. I thought it meant no words spoken at all. I work with nonverbal kids at the childrens hospital im always at, one little boy who only makes loud screeches, or squeals, one severe boy who said a couple words, one little girl who said some sentences, like go bye bye now, or outside bike, usually incomplete sentences but sentences. For the little girl she would refer to outside as always going on the bike or banana always meant spongebob, because spongebob was yellow. I loved hanging with her, I would help her with her signing as much as i could, I even got her to speak some words and sing along with me, i loved it.

Nonverbal usually means can't engage in one and one conversation or even have a conversation, a lot of nonverbals do echolila to talk.

I was nonverbal growing up, didnt start speaking in correct full sentences until i was 8. I still have moments where my brain totally shuts down, can't get a word out at all, just weird noises, i rely on sign or the guessing game which always doesnt turn out well.

_________________
Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I've heard it used to mean:

* unable to use speech or any other language
* unable to use speech at all
* unable to use speech for standard communicative purposes

I alternate between those. (I used to also have at some speech that I could use to mean things I said, but that's all but gone by now. It had been hard to gain and was easy to lose when I started experiencing more stress and pressure.) I sometimes slip up and call myself non-verbal, but I usually go for non-speaking instead because it seems more specific -- "verbal" can just mean "language", and I am using language when I am typing, as well as using (receptive) language when I read or listen to other people's language.

The amount of distress any such difficulty causes depends on what I'm trying to do at that moment. If I'm not actively trying to do something, then it causes me no stress not to be able to do it. It causes me a lot of stress if I really want to do something and can't, or can't well enough to actually get it done. But if I'm not doing something and not thinking about doing something, I'm not going to be worried about whether I'm able to do that particular thing or not.