What does ASD sound like?

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Was chatting to a lady from DORE (UK) they help with ADHD and related conditions. Found out it costs too much though! I told her I seemed to have ADHD / NVLD traits or maybe even autistic spectrum traits - I said don't know for sure but whatever it is would like help with it.

She said you don't sound autistic. Just wondered what autistics do sound like. Would you recongise an aspie from the way they sound?

I have been told I sound strange - have a soft voice and odd intonation - but other than that sound ok - articulate enough.

Many people with autism have a monotone voice, or have trouble controlling the volume of their voice. As with all symptoms, not everyone has it, and you can learn to use more inflection.

Beyond voice modulation and tone, there are also mannerisms and various wording of questions that can identify to trained professionals that an individual is likely on the spectrum. Many NATs can have difficulty prefacing questions, or making statements without an air of complete confidence. Sometimes things come out forcefully, when discretion or gentle words might elicit a more positive response.

The diagnostic criteria in the DSM are for DXing AS in children.

Adults learn coping mechanisms and outgrow many of the giveaway behaviors, because they get you socially ostracized. Once most of those giveaways have been internalized and compensated for, its harder to tell by casual observation.

'You don't sound like an Autistic' is a remark made by someone whose knowledge of Autism is limited.

You're probably right... but do you mean that people who have limited knowledge of Autism think autistic people have a distinctive voice/sound or is it just a metaphor used to claim that you can tell who is autistic by listening to them.

My grandmother have limited knowledge of autistic people or people who suffers from any disability, when I told her I felt like I may have a disorder she told me that I was not a "ret*d", she basically think that all autistic people have the same behaviour and that they cannot talk properly.
(I won't talk about her opinion on other disorders since we're talking about the "Autistic sound" here, but she only tolerate dyslexia since my cousin has been diagnosed with it ).

I guess most people think that someone who has a mental disorder act a peculiar way and it seems that most people believe that Autistic people are unable to use a correct language so I thought it could be some kind of metaphor meaning that someone who is Autistic would not be able to talk like that or to realize they are autistic (that's what my grandmother says, she never used this expression but I guess her opinion is shared by many uninformed people).
But I know that Autistic children (because we rarely talk about Autistic adults, it seems that Autism cannot exist among adults...) are sometimes shown as being loud and incoherent, this may be the "autistic sound".

You´re taking what she said too literally. She just means everything about you, not just the way you sound voice wise.

what does ASD sound like?

It is the sound of one hand flapping

But I would agree that she is probably talking about stuttered, monotone, blunt or overly formal speech. Although it is kind of dismissive to just say that, and that there is other things she should be looking for.

Excellent.


Yeah, common knowledge (which is to say 'popular misinformation') is that Autism = Mental Retardation. Most people have no real clue what Autism is, and have never heard of Asperger Syndrome. Of those who have heard of AS, most think its something along the lines of Rainman, or associate it with violent outbursts and zero eye contact, and they think its pronounced Ass Burgers.

The name is Ahz-pair-gur. That's what an ASD sounds like.

ditto what buryuntime said. its most likely just a misinterpretation of an expression, not an unusual occurrence for an autistic. when something "sounds like" X, it just means the description given fits the parameters of X.

maybe you should talk to her again and tell her how confused you were about how your voice didnt sound autistic. then maybe due to the literal interpretation she would think you sounded autistic =)

I think this is probably right. People often use 'sound', 'look' and 'seem' interchangeably. She probably meant you didn't seem autistic - not only in the way you speak, but also the things you say, how you come across, etc. People see autism as something that comes across in what is said, rather than a visual thing, so the word 'sound' probably refers to your whole communication style.

I think she meant sound as the way I speak because of the context - but then i'm self conscious about my voice - so could just have assumed that. Will ask her.

My parents say that as a child, I sounded like a loud Ben Stine.

Oh, nice catch! I'd forgotten the idiom. Yes, that is possible; she could have meant "You don't seem autistic to me," rather than, "your voice doesn't sound like what I think an autistic person's voice sounds like," but I think it could be either one. Which it is depends on the context.

Granted, most autistics do have highly unusual speech; but most of the time, that's most obvious in childhood and then tapers off as the person ages. (There are exceptions where people lose language proficiency, but those cases are the small minority.) So in the same case, you might have a non-verbal three-year-old, a five-year-old using single words, a seven-year-old using functional echolalia and scripting, a ten-year-old who can use full sentences but can't have a back-and-forth conversation, a twelve-year-old who can answer questions but not make small talk, a fifteen-year-old who can hold conversations but still has a monotone voice and pedantic diction, a twenty-five-year-old who uses inflection pretty well but sounds very formal, and a thirty-year-old who can imitate neurotypical diction and colloquial language well enough that only an expert could tell he is autistic. You learn as you grow--and the non-verbal three-year-old is the same person as the thirty-year-old whose speech cannot be easily distinguished from typical. And the thirty-year-old may, in times of stress, drop the most recently learned skills and begin using the easier, but more unusual, speech patterns again.

I have a somewhat quiet, very monotone voice, which I am pretty sure is related to my AS. Some Aspies also may have overly formal speech, or accents that do not match those of their family or people who live around them. They may also have nasally, high voices; other people say that sometimes Aspies have 'sing-song' voices and use too much expression in their voice. People with Asperger's may also have very advanced vocabularies; or they may stutter due to social anxiety. I don't think it's right that someone just said that you don't "sound" autistic, though... Maybe your symptoms have nothing to do with speech.

That's me taking it literally, though.

As a poster above said, she may have just meant you don't seem autistic to her.