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KT67
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15 Jan 2021, 12:37 pm

There's a stereotype that autistic people don't use/get figures of speech.

This isn't me at all.

In fact I use them so much that when I'm trying to be serious I make my stepdad laugh and I confuse people cos they focus on my metaphor, not what it represents.

I do it through unique images rather than figures of speech which are commonly known. Sometimes to do with specialist interests. Sometimes to do with giving an example which is a single example to represent something greater/more common but less tangible.

I wonder if other autistic people do this. I wonder if there is a correalation between those of us who speak like this & those of us who write poetry.

I've been doing it all my life. When I was a kid I would do it during meltdowns & my parents would laugh at my point cos of how I expressed it :(

I am trying so very hard here not to give a single eg for everyone to focus on...


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autisticelders
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15 Jan 2021, 5:27 pm

interesting observation. I tend to use metaphor to explain my experiences or perceptions of things, events, etc to others. I rely on words primarily to interact or connect with my world. I have really poor visual and audio processing, but reading and writing "work" for me. It is a "default" skill or strength because the rest of my neurology is much lower functioning. I don't know if metaphor is part of the autistic self expression or simply because I have developed my word skills more because the rest of my neurology is so unreliable.
Like using the oars if the motor on the boat is broken? but I've got to be a decent oarsman by now. :)


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Pepe
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15 Jan 2021, 9:37 pm

I am good at appreciating humour.
I enjoy irony and satire.
I use figurative terminology.

I seem to be one hell of an odd aspie.
And I don't have a problem with that. 8)



OkaySometimes
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16 Jan 2021, 7:11 am

Figurative language has never been an issue for me, but I was around it all my life. Much of the language usage I was exposed to growing up relied heavily on figurative language, both metaphoric and idiomatic. The southern US is very "linguistically rich" in many ways.
I have always been good with language in general. Early reader, early speaker, hyperverbal until around early teenage years (when the depression really got going), tested as "gifted" in language early, etc. Good with the mechanics of language, I should say. I'm fairly bad at conversation.