Recognizing body language and facial expressions, etc.

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Jacob12
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22 Sep 2016, 8:51 pm

I know that some people with high-functioning autism have little expression in their face, or speak in a somewhat monotone voice. However, I have never had those problems. My voice is as varied as other people's, and I've been told that I'm very expressive. Yet, I have difficulty noticing and interpreting the facial expressions and vocal tone of other people. It was more of a problem when I was younger, and I think I've made quite a lot of progress in that area, having learned to take more notice of other people's body language.

Still, how is it that I can be so expressive myself, but have trouble recognizing when other people do the same things I do?



ocdgirl123
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23 Sep 2016, 8:20 pm

I'm the same way. Especially with facial expressions. Recognizing tone of voice/body language isn't as a much of a problem as facial expressions.

I'm also expressive with my face, though I have been told that I'm quite expressive with my mouth, and less expressive with my eyes, whereas NTs tend to be more expressive with their eyes. So for me, I think it's that my expressions are different from NTs.


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Jacob12
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25 Sep 2016, 7:21 pm

ocdgirl123 wrote:
I'm the same way. Especially with facial expressions. Recognizing tone of voice/body language isn't as a much of a problem as facial expressions.

I'm also expressive with my face, though I have been told that I'm quite expressive with my mouth, and less expressive with my eyes, whereas NTs tend to be more expressive with their eyes. So for me, I think it's that my expressions are different from NTs.


I've never been told that my expressions are unusual or different. From what I can tell, they're normal. Yet I still find (or have in the past, at least) difficulty recognizing them in others.



Dr.Pepper
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25 Sep 2016, 7:46 pm

I know there are receptive speech and expressive speech and a person can have issues with one and not the other. Since facial expression is part of communication, it makes sense that it would also be expressive and receptive, paralleling verbal speech.



Jacob12
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25 Sep 2016, 7:50 pm

Dr.Pepper wrote:
I know there are receptive speech and expressive speech and a person can have issues with one and not the other. Since facial expression is part of communication, it makes sense that it would also be expressive and receptive, paralleling verbal speech.


What do you mean? Isn't all speech expressive by nature? How can speech, which manifests itself by external audio in the ears of others, be receptive?