When you speak do you use hand gestures?

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Always did as a child. I assume I still do but take it so much for granted. I will now try to find out if I still do. People used to comment on it all the time but I don't recall anyone doing so for many years.

I wave my hands around a lot when I am talking in a confusing, windmill-like fashion.

I would've thought Aspies would use fewer hand gestures. I use them. I even use them when I'm only fantasizing about a conversation.

I didn't think my habit of saying sorry too much was related to AS. It feels more like a result of my low self-esteem and timidness.

I find hand gestures annoying and distractive when others use them unnecessarily, so I don't use them unnecessarily myself. I hate having to back away from someone who is trying to explain something, and all I can concentrate on is avoiding getting a hyperdemonstrative thumb up my nose, or an elbow knocking something down in the background.

Exceptions would include pointing at an object or in a direction, when required to accurately describe or designate an object or direction. Or perhaps to describe the size of an object that may be an irregular shape or otherwise difficult to state a size by verbal description (holding your hands a certain distance apart as to show or describe the size of a puppy you were telling about).

Otherwise, hands in pockets please, and speak clearly and concisely, and nobody will get hurt

Charles

I thought everyone used hand gestures when talking.

Somewhere between hand gestures and random flailing.

I only tend to use hand gestures and/or dramatic flailing when I'm excited about something or talking about something I enjoy. Otherwise I tend to fidget with my hands instead. It's one of the reasons I'm so clumsy, knocking things over with my hands and arms.

As for saying sorry, it seems to be a result of not reading social cues. We've learnt that if someone is upset it is likely due to us saying or doing something to upset them without realising. Saying sorry is a reflex for me as well, even if I don't mean it - sometimes people just want to hear you say it.

I gesture a lot, but it's more a memory aid for myself, I do it on the phone too, definitely not doing it for the benefit of the person I'm speaking to.

I do. I don't "think in pictures" but I'm definitely a visual thinker. Sometimes for me there's no other way to explain something. I recall having to learn to mirror image my descriptive gestures so other people don't see it reversed. Of course, being from Michigan, the hand is a nice tool for telling people where I live within the state.

They do. The thing is apies might use weird ,exaggerated gestures if people are mentioning that to them and mimicking their gestures. Someone did this to me and I said something about how it's a normal thing to do and my sister does it too. Her response (she knew my sister) was "Not like that (mimics gesture) your sister doesn't talk like that. Those are weird movements". Maybe most people wouldn't be so blunt but the point is aspies commonly either have fewer gestures than average (flat affect/lack of expression) or weird ones (clumsy, gauche body language) or perhaps alternate between the two. Some might not have either.

Anyway I have strange hand gestures. They've been pointed out to me a few times. I'm also not a visual/picture thinker at all.

Sometimes I use gestures.
Not as much as other people I know but I do.
And when I do, people have told me that they cannot interpret my gestures.

I don't.

I think that's why mine are weird. They're not communicating anything(at least not intelligibly). It's more like I just flail my arms around while I talk and I do it a lot.

With regards to interpreting them, hand gestures don't generally mean much, do they? To me, it just signifies how excited/animated someone is about their topic.

Sometimes people use them to communicate specific information.

surely its not an aspie thing specifically, its communication, i know many people who do it, especially teachers, its just a way of emphasising points and getting points accross.

No, never, my arms always just hang down like useless appendages unless I have something specific to do with them.

Somebody took a picture of me once, after they had spent 10 minutes trying to arrange my appendages into a more natural pose.

I thought hand gestures were an NT thing, like body language?