Verbal ability vs social communication
firemonkey
Citizen
in General ASD
The gap between verbal ability and social communication ability can,IMO, be quite large. I do very well on tests of verbal ability, but I'm a lacklustre/far from good social communicator. The ADOS 2 had me at classic autism level.
For me,others may well differ, it happens in both spoken and written situations. It happens relatively less with writing than with speaking .
I'm not, and will never be, the sort to be a highly charismatic/popular forum member. To use a political analogy; I'm far more 'Gordon Brown' than 'Tony Blair'.
For me,others may well differ, it happens in both spoken and written situations. It happens relatively less with writing than with speaking .
I'm not, and will never be, the sort to be a highly charismatic/popular forum member. To use a political analogy; I'm far more 'Gordon Brown' than 'Tony Blair'.
Comments
I'm acceptable to medium in social communication after a lifetime of study and practice. I was a disaster in my youth though, despite having very good linguistic skills back then too. Learning body language and having friendly NTs help me with understanding and practising these skills made a difference, but the disparity between the two is still considerable.
Another big hurdle in social communication is that no matter how much I learn or understand, I still cannot always process all the information and react accordingly in real time.
Some time back, where I lived before, there was a course for those who struggled with initiating conversations. A problem I have. Trouble was it was aimed at people with primary psychotic disorders- a dx I'd had previously but didn't have then. I mentioned my difficulty to my care coordinator who said she'd look into it. I never did get on the course.
As a person with sz(also ASD) social skills including social communication are often poor . That may be stated in your psych notes,and other official letters, but it doesn't, in my experience result in actual help for it.
My social ability overall is okay. It used to be very bad when I was a kid. Learning how to recognize tone and body language was helpful, but took years and I'm still learning. Learning to mask socially and "monitor" myself was also a detriment to my mental health and now I suffer from intense, constant anxiety in social situations.
I sometimes wonder if I got a diagnosis when I was tested at 6 if I would have gotten more help socially and wouldn't have had to find it all out by trial-and-error, and thus I wouldn't have as much anxiety.
I had some speech therapy, but I probably should have gone through that a lot longer. I had a little bit of occupational therapy overall that was an hour in a portable at my school once or twice a week and focused on things I needed to learn for school.
I don’t present as well as I should present via any medium. Hence, people perceive me as a “lightweight.”