Asperger's and Voice Registration
For HFA:
more likely to speak slower, louder
more likely to be higher-pitched
more likely to be hypernasal
unusual rhythm (vowel lengths, use of pauses, etc.)
unusual intonation- used a rising intonation more often even when falling intonation would be expected- result is that statements may sound like questions
more likely to sound either monotone (flat intonational contour) or sing-song (excessive variations in pitch and loudness)
unusual use of stress- more likely to stress function words (very unusual pattern), had difficulty with pragmatic stress
higher rate of normal disfluencies (word and phrase repetition and revision)
There is also evidence that individuals with HFA may be more likely to have altered voice quality- generally either hoarse or harsh.
For AS:
studies differed on whether rate was more likely to be fast or slow- some evidence that rate may *appear* fast to listeners, even when slower than average
somewhat more likely to be louder
more likely to be higher-pitched
more likely to be hyponasal
unusual rhythm
unusual intonation (more likely to have rising intonation)
more likely to be sing-song
difficulty with pragmatic stress
higher rate of normal disfluencies
No matter what the aspect of prosody being examined, one almost universal feature of studies which compared the prosody of NT, HFA, and AS individuals was that participants with HFA received the most abnormal ratings, while individuals with AS performed more similarly to NTs.
Intonation actually is very important in accent perception, so it makes sense that someone with unusual intonation may be perceived as having an accent.
My volume can vary. That is apparently COMMON with AS.
I sound younger than I am. A supplier once was surprised when I told him my age. When I mentioned something similar to my boss, he thought a moment and say "Yeah, you DO sound a bit younger than you are".
*I* don't think I have a singsong voice, except when I speak danish, because I have a nice danish accent and it is part of it, but at least 2 people told me I do.
Otherwise, I don't have any of those oddities.
Alex440
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Joined: 15 Nov 2007
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I logged in for the first time in months just to reply here because it affects me a lot. I frequently get people repeating what I say, mocking what I sound like. The interesting thing is, every time someone does it, it sounds the same so I think I'm getting a pretty good idea of what I sound like.
It's not so much about the accent as it is about the tone. Think Forrest Gump. It's like I'm speaking from down in my adam's apple or something, though I'm not aware of it. Sometimes people accuse me of mumbling or just can't understand me (too fast? even though I speak slower than everyone else??). None of my friends notice my speech at all, only strangers, so if I'm able conceal it I'll be more able to pass off as NT. I guess the key to it is to enunciate words more clearly and speak "from the mouth" rather than the throat.
Most of what's written here applies to me as well. I have a very deep voice and very low pitched which makes it even harder for me in social situations like in classroom no one can hear what i say etc...also i speak extremely fast with almost no intonation sometimes completely untelligeble, so most of the time i must repeat the sentence i just said MUCH slower.
My family,friends and everyone who knows me are accustomed to that and it's not a big problem for them,but it's a big problem for me because i HATE to repeat every god-damned sentence i say.
I Wish i could learn how to change that... ![]()
Unfortunately for them, I think this is the case for many 13 year old boys--both on the spectrum and off.
_________________
Diagnosed with classic Autism
AQ score= 48
PDD assessment score= 170 (severe PDD)
EQ=8 SQ=93 (Extreme Systemizer)
Alexithymia Quiz=164/185 (high)
Unfortunately for them, I think this is the case for many 13 year old boys--both on the spectrum and off.
Yeah. But I've had a voice deeper than my dad's since the age of 14.
And, for the last time, the differences between AS and HFA are negligible.
_________________
Remember, all atrocities begin in a sensible place.
Yes, that's why I've said many and not all.
_________________
Diagnosed with classic Autism
AQ score= 48
PDD assessment score= 170 (severe PDD)
EQ=8 SQ=93 (Extreme Systemizer)
Alexithymia Quiz=164/185 (high)
I tend to talk loud and fast and people think I have an accent. They think I am from the eastern USA or from Australia. My dad is the same way minus the accent. I do believe he has traits. Maybe he has social communication disorder. That would explain his poor social skills. He even sucks at empathy too. My husband can see me in him. One time he told me "Of course you wouldn't know he is being rude because you're a lot like him." But I have better social skills than he does.
I sound like I have an accent. My parents are both immigrants and thus have accents but I was born and raised in the same place (where I also happen to live) and my parents avoided and still avoid to make me speak in their language; on top of all, my father actually never taught me his language. So I rarely speak another language unless I'm in another country (I'm bilingual but I only use that other language when I'm in a country where it is used and not at home).
I also have a brother who doesn't have any accent at all when he speaks; he sounds perfectly normal.
So it's somehow strange that I sound like that. I think maybe I copied my parents' accents but why should I've done that? Besides, I don't even sound like I've got an identifiable accent since I don't sound like either accent anyway (my father's or my mother's accent). I always wondered about the way I talk and the way my voice sounds.
Sometimes people don't understand what I am saying but I don't know if it's because of my accent or because of something else. I have to repeat myself often.
Most of the time I sound monotone but if I try to sound "social", I sound excessively sing-songy, as well.
Last edited by Mayel on 07 Sep 2011, 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm OK with my accent - I have a cockney accent, which is right for where I come from.
I don't generally speak in monotone with people, but I only do when speaking to someone whom I don't really like or if they are making me feel nervous. I just can't seem to intonate my voice, and after a while I develop an ache in my throat from speaking in too much monotone. It feels like a bass sort of tone.
Thank god I don't speak to many people I don't like often.
_________________
Female
I have a very "accusative" kind of tone in my voice. Most of the things I say sound really mean, apparently. When I ask someone something, they often feel the need to explain themselves beforehand, as if they had just been "attacked". Even under the most trivial circumstances. Even when I'm trying to be their friends. Another problem though, is that my voice is very deep and that added to my loud talking, makes my voice even louder. :S Imma need to try and work on that.
About the accent thing, my accent varies from month to month in portuguese (I'm Brazilian) and in English I've gotten to a point where I've lost all of my brazilian accent. This last part is nice haha. But yeah, I feel you.
I'm not sure what I wrote makes sense. I'm on strong sleeping pills as of this moment. So I apologize beforehand
I have a deep resonant voice for a woman, and people who don't know me often ask what country I grew up in. I pronounce vowels differently perhaps from the customary New Zealand accent, possibly more rounded than flat. The same thing used to happen to my late brother, (also AS) and when he asked people what accent they thought he had, the most common answer was "trans-atlantic" - which seemed to be their way of saying "impossible to place".
Both he and I lived in the UK for a while (he for a long time, me relatively briefly), and people nearly always failed to locate our land of origin correctly (though they could for other New Zealanders). I don't know exactly how or why these different voice tones came about for us. I was often asked then if my parents grew up in Europe (no).
As voice tone is affected by diaphragm tone, and the muscle tone of that is related to breathing and the sounds we make (according to teachers of singing and voice) it may be an innate difference in that which led to us having hard-to-place voices. I know quite a few AS adults and most of them (not all) have quite resonant voices too, different from the norm here, so there may be some connection of some kind for some of us.
I have had "voice registration" problems for years. When I was a pre-teen my voice was too high pitched and the prosody was was all over the place (according to those psychologists that analyzed me it was obvious I had "Asperger's" from my speech). Then my mid teens I went through periods where I started experiencing a lot of vocal-fry (and it wasn't deliberate) which would cause my entire voice to sound "cracky" and other times I'd sound totally dead, monotone. I got the "you have a total monotone voice" thing constantly.
I also spoke with more nasality as I got older until I was around 22. I took speech classes at 23 for this and it evened out a lot of the "aspie prosody" issues. of course this caused me to become obsessed for a while about the way I speak and even caused me to try to dial down unrelated regional things like Canadian raising ![]()
auntblabby
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BirdInFlight
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I've never had a normal voice for a grown-up woman. My voice stayed stuck as sounding like a child or a teenage girl. It's high, bell-like, and really does sound like a kid talking. I don't have monotone, if anything I'm too "all over the place" in my tone.
I also speak at a slower speed than most people, but it doesn't feel like that to me -- I only realize that's true when I hear myself speaking in a recording or when other people have mentioned it. "Inside" me I feel like I'm talking at a normal speed but I'm not.
I have a pendulum-like history with my volume levels. When I was a child I wen through years of what I only now know was selective mutism outside of the home -- mostly in school. If someone forced me to respond I could only speak very quietly.
When I got older and realized I had to deal with strangers and the outside world in a "do or die" outlook, I forced myself to be louder in my speech and my presentation in general, and swung too far in the opposite direction. I got stuck ever since in being unable to moderate my volume and NOT be too loud when speaking. I can't win for losing, with my speaking voice.
On the other hand, I have a nice singing voice (by my own reckoning but also by other people's: I've been requested, hired, paid to to sing by other people on their projects etc so it's not just my ego lol). I can modify and modulate and control my singing voice and volume and tone and everything else in a way that I don't seem to succeed at when speaking.
I've actually had many people hear my singing demo tapes and deny that could possibly be me singing, because my singing voice is a lot different and a lot nicer on the ear than my crappy speaking voice. I've had people who didn't actually see me singing live refuse to believe the singer on the tape they heard is me.
I sound like crap when I speak. I sound like a five year old girl. When I used to answer the phone I never DIDN'T get "May I speak with your mother?" And that was age 40.
auntblabby
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just an idea balloon here- they teach stuttering/stammering people to sing as they talk to bypass the defective brain speech parts, what would happen if in your mind you were singing when you were talking, since you can effectively modulate your singing voice just pretend it is a different kinda song you are singing when in monologue or dialogue.
