Does "Toastmasters" work for aspies?

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Or is it one of those self-improvement groups for maladapted NTs, where an aspie would never fit in and be able to participate in a meaningful way?

actually it may be good there is one person at the support group that i go to that also goes to Toastmasers he says it works

I go to Toastmasters and I love it. I am a speaker at autism conferences and soon (hopefully) mental health conferences to inspire people that anything is possible if they put their mind to it. In fact, I have 2 autism conferences that I am speaking at in May.

I think it could probably work. Some awkwardness and fear can be overcome through exposure and practice. I regularly speak in public with (mostly) little difficulty, but then I've been performing music in public since I was five years old.

Z

See my post here:

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt89089.html

I was in Toastmasters from 1992-1999. I enjoyed it. I think it realy helped me with job interviews.

Yes, I think Toastmasters would be a lot of help. I actually got an "A" in my public speaking class - it was actually easier to speak to a crowd about a subject you'd prepared already and you don't have to interact with only one person, you just keep your eyes scanning around at your audience, so that you don't have to actually look anybody directly in their eyes. On the other hand, you'd also be required to sit through everyone else's speeches.....

I've heard the name Toastmasters, but didn't know what it was... I'll have to look it up!

My daughter, Firebird is in Toastmasters and she is autistic. The Toastmasters group that she is part of are wonderful. They are so supportive and encouraging. I have heard that this is true at all of the Toastmaster groups. They offer good advice and really help her make her speeches better.

That's good advice, Mw99, thanks for mentioning it!

My husband was in toastmasters and he became extremely good at public speaking. I am so amazed!

I wonder if I should go to a meeting so everyone can feel uncomfortable in my presence? I would go to Toastmasters if I thought it would benefit me but I know how things go for me and these kinds of things never work out for me. They just end up wasting my time. It would be cool if I could find a place where people actually liked me but I doubt that's my destiny.