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nightengaleskndNovember first is Autistic Speaking Day.
https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/
I’ve participated a few times before
Amplifying Autistics
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/108050.html
Writing the brochure I want to read in the world https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/104300.html
Autistic ear, autistic voice
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/100586.html
Speaking from the shadows
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/88699.html
Autistic speaking day, 2012
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/84015.html
And here goes
I speak. I speak a lot. Frankly, I’ve described myself as aggressively verbal, and I’m not paying myself a complement when I say it. I don’t always know when to stop speaking. I don’t always hear the pauses in conversation. As a child, other children told me I sound like I swallowed the dictionary. I always found that ridiculous because I’d never read the dictionary. I did read the encyclopedia, although after the age that insult mostly wore off. I love words and looking for the right word and making up a new word if there isn’t one.
Most autistic people speak. I’ve seen an estimate that 20% of autistic people don’t speak verbal words, but I haven’t found the study(ies) to substantiate this. I did a chart audit a few years ago of 96 consecutive autistic patients age 3 or older and found about 80% used some verbal language and 65% used verbal sentences. Obviously, verbal people are more likely to be diagnosed at a later age, if at all.
Autistic people who speak often speak differently from neurotypical people in ways that get noticed.
Today I’m going to talk about scripting.
Lots of autistic people use scripts, at least some of the time.
Script (noun): the written text of a play, movie, or broadcast. (google)
Script (verb): to use memorized phrases or larger strings of language for a variety of communication and self-regulation purposes in a way that is not typically used or expected by neurotypical people (Nightengale)
Repeating lines from a TV commercial would be scripting. Coming home from school and repeating sentences spoken by the teacher would be scripting. So would learning to say “I’m OK, I’m OK” as a strategy to calm anxiety.
So would writing out a plan ahead of time before calling a store or doctor’s office to ask questions
So would be coming up with the language from scratch to answer a question or tell a story, and then using that same language many more times whenever the question is asked or the story is relevant.
I don’t use a lot of scripting that is generally flagged as a script. At least, I don’t think I do. But I’m realizing more and more just how many scripts I use.
Context is everything
“Speak the speech, I pray you, trippingly on the tongue”
What does it mean? How will someone respond?
Well, if I’m onstage playing Hamlet, this is expected language. But assume I’m not.
(“expected” is a snarking script against the social skills expert who labels behavior as “expected” and “unexpected” because that’s ever so much more helpful and less judgmental than “appropriate/inappropriate” or “good/bad”
If someone recognizes it as Shakespeare, they may chime in, or finish the quote or label me as pretentious
If someone doesn’t recognize it as Shakespeare, they will likely label me as “weird” at best.
So I don’t use a lot of scripts from Shakespeare. Or scripts from other plays, movies or broadcasts. At least, I don’t generally use these scripts out loud.
I was standing at the bottom of the set in dance class, across from the teacher. It was a tough dance, so we were walking people through more than usual before dancing it. He was going to ask me if I wanted to walk it. I knew he was going to ask. And I realized I was going to answer “In Spain”
The answer to “do you want to walk it?” is “I think I’ve got it.”
“I think I’ve got it” comes directly from the My Fair Lady Song, “The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain”
“I think she’s got it! By George, she’s got it! Now once again, where does it rain?”
“On the plain! On the plain! And where’s that blasted plain? In Spain! In Spain!”
I can’t think “I think I’ve got it” without thinking the rest of that in my head. SO MANY WORDS and phrases set off songs in my head, or play quotes, or the book where I first learned the word, or the class at school. . . . I can turn it off. But I have to actively and consciously turn it off. I don’t ever really have to turn it on. I keep most of the scripts from scripts in my head.
Most of my scripts, though, the ones I say out loud, are the ones I write myself.
To some extent, I think most people write some scripts themselves. Every person has an idiolect, a unique set of words and syntax. I LOVE that word. People who travel probably approach the hotel desk with the same phrase every time. People often tell a story in a pretty similar way each time. People call stores to ask about stock or hours using pretty much the same language each time.
I hate the telephone so much I’ve neologized the word “telephonophobia.” (I’ve also neologized the verb “neologize” from the noun, “neologism” which means a newly created word, often in a pathologized way.)
But I have to make a lot of phone calls for my work. Generally, I’m returning the call of a parent. And I say “This is Nightengale Samarkand from Developmental Pediatrics” pretty much every time. The doctor next to me says “This is Dr Lastname.” It’s an idiolect. It’s a script.
When I’m winding up a new visit, I ask “is there anything else we haven’t talked today about that you think is important?” At follow-up visits, I generally ask what is “new or different since I saw you last?”
I get asked the same questions over and over, to the point where I have a lot of scripted answers. I have a script about the side effects of common medications. I have a script about how the family should call me if “you or [other caregiver] feel like ‘that’s not my kid’” I have a script about the risk of addiction in people using stimulant medication and a script about the DEA regulations for stimulant medication. I change the scripts over time, in response to the questions I’m asked and how people respond to what I say. It’s a cross between a script and improv.
I have a bunch of new scripts about medical marijuana and CBD oil. They vary depending on how much information the person asking wants. Some are short and some start quoting results from research literature. There’s a story I often tell about a medication I wouldn’t prescribe a few years ago for kids due to the lack of pediatric data but often prescribe now that there have been some studies.
Of course, there isn’t a script to answer every question. I often get asked new questions or variations of familiar questions and have to spontaneously create new answers. Although for a great piece of irony, I do have a single script to start the answer to a lot of questions.
“Wow, what a great question and I have absolutely no idea.” Generally this is followed by either an attempt to look up an answer on the spot or reason out an answer through what I know on the topic.
Sometimes I am specifically asked to deliver a script on a topic. I mean, they call it “presenting” or “giving a talk” or “teaching.” Highly verbal autistic children have long been described as having “little professor syndrome.” I guess because they sound sort of like big professors, who are expected to be giving talks on topics. There’s that “expected” word again.
Here’s a new definition of irony: highly verbal, perhaps aggressively verbal autistic spending my day speaking (and scripting) to and about autistic people who aren’t very verbal
And here’s another bit of Shakespeare, Hamlet again even. Just because I like it.
“Words, words words”
https://autisticsspeakingday.blogspot.com/
I’ve participated a few times before
Amplifying Autistics
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/108050.html
Writing the brochure I want to read in the world https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/104300.html
Autistic ear, autistic voice
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/100586.html
Speaking from the shadows
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/88699.html
Autistic speaking day, 2012
https://nightengalesknd.dreamwidth.org/84015.html
And here goes
I speak. I speak a lot. Frankly, I’ve described myself as aggressively verbal, and I’m not paying myself a complement when I say it. I don’t always know when to stop speaking. I don’t always hear the pauses in conversation. As a child, other children told me I sound like I swallowed the dictionary. I always found that ridiculous because I’d never read the dictionary. I did read the encyclopedia, although after the age that insult mostly wore off. I love words and looking for the right word and making up a new word if there isn’t one.
Most autistic people speak. I’ve seen an estimate that 20% of autistic people don’t speak verbal words, but I haven’t found the study(ies) to substantiate this. I did a chart audit a few years ago of 96 consecutive autistic patients age 3 or older and found about 80% used some verbal language and 65% used verbal sentences. Obviously, verbal people are more likely to be diagnosed at a later age, if at all.
Autistic people who speak often speak differently from neurotypical people in ways that get noticed.
Today I’m going to talk about scripting.
Lots of autistic people use scripts, at least some of the time.
Script (noun): the written text of a play, movie, or broadcast. (google)
Script (verb): to use memorized phrases or larger strings of language for a variety of communication and self-regulation purposes in a way that is not typically used or expected by neurotypical people (Nightengale)
Repeating lines from a TV commercial would be scripting. Coming home from school and repeating sentences spoken by the teacher would be scripting. So would learning to say “I’m OK, I’m OK” as a strategy to calm anxiety.
So would writing out a plan ahead of time before calling a store or doctor’s office to ask questions
So would be coming up with the language from scratch to answer a question or tell a story, and then using that same language many more times whenever the question is asked or the story is relevant.
I don’t use a lot of scripting that is generally flagged as a script. At least, I don’t think I do. But I’m realizing more and more just how many scripts I use.
Context is everything
“Speak the speech, I pray you, trippingly on the tongue”
What does it mean? How will someone respond?
Well, if I’m onstage playing Hamlet, this is expected language. But assume I’m not.
(“expected” is a snarking script against the social skills expert who labels behavior as “expected” and “unexpected” because that’s ever so much more helpful and less judgmental than “appropriate/inappropriate” or “good/bad”
If someone recognizes it as Shakespeare, they may chime in, or finish the quote or label me as pretentious
If someone doesn’t recognize it as Shakespeare, they will likely label me as “weird” at best.
So I don’t use a lot of scripts from Shakespeare. Or scripts from other plays, movies or broadcasts. At least, I don’t generally use these scripts out loud.
I was standing at the bottom of the set in dance class, across from the teacher. It was a tough dance, so we were walking people through more than usual before dancing it. He was going to ask me if I wanted to walk it. I knew he was going to ask. And I realized I was going to answer “In Spain”
The answer to “do you want to walk it?” is “I think I’ve got it.”
“I think I’ve got it” comes directly from the My Fair Lady Song, “The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain”
“I think she’s got it! By George, she’s got it! Now once again, where does it rain?”
“On the plain! On the plain! And where’s that blasted plain? In Spain! In Spain!”
I can’t think “I think I’ve got it” without thinking the rest of that in my head. SO MANY WORDS and phrases set off songs in my head, or play quotes, or the book where I first learned the word, or the class at school. . . . I can turn it off. But I have to actively and consciously turn it off. I don’t ever really have to turn it on. I keep most of the scripts from scripts in my head.
Most of my scripts, though, the ones I say out loud, are the ones I write myself.
To some extent, I think most people write some scripts themselves. Every person has an idiolect, a unique set of words and syntax. I LOVE that word. People who travel probably approach the hotel desk with the same phrase every time. People often tell a story in a pretty similar way each time. People call stores to ask about stock or hours using pretty much the same language each time.
I hate the telephone so much I’ve neologized the word “telephonophobia.” (I’ve also neologized the verb “neologize” from the noun, “neologism” which means a newly created word, often in a pathologized way.)
But I have to make a lot of phone calls for my work. Generally, I’m returning the call of a parent. And I say “This is Nightengale Samarkand from Developmental Pediatrics” pretty much every time. The doctor next to me says “This is Dr Lastname.” It’s an idiolect. It’s a script.
When I’m winding up a new visit, I ask “is there anything else we haven’t talked today about that you think is important?” At follow-up visits, I generally ask what is “new or different since I saw you last?”
I get asked the same questions over and over, to the point where I have a lot of scripted answers. I have a script about the side effects of common medications. I have a script about how the family should call me if “you or [other caregiver] feel like ‘that’s not my kid’” I have a script about the risk of addiction in people using stimulant medication and a script about the DEA regulations for stimulant medication. I change the scripts over time, in response to the questions I’m asked and how people respond to what I say. It’s a cross between a script and improv.
I have a bunch of new scripts about medical marijuana and CBD oil. They vary depending on how much information the person asking wants. Some are short and some start quoting results from research literature. There’s a story I often tell about a medication I wouldn’t prescribe a few years ago for kids due to the lack of pediatric data but often prescribe now that there have been some studies.
Of course, there isn’t a script to answer every question. I often get asked new questions or variations of familiar questions and have to spontaneously create new answers. Although for a great piece of irony, I do have a single script to start the answer to a lot of questions.
“Wow, what a great question and I have absolutely no idea.” Generally this is followed by either an attempt to look up an answer on the spot or reason out an answer through what I know on the topic.
Sometimes I am specifically asked to deliver a script on a topic. I mean, they call it “presenting” or “giving a talk” or “teaching.” Highly verbal autistic children have long been described as having “little professor syndrome.” I guess because they sound sort of like big professors, who are expected to be giving talks on topics. There’s that “expected” word again.
Here’s a new definition of irony: highly verbal, perhaps aggressively verbal autistic spending my day speaking (and scripting) to and about autistic people who aren’t very verbal
And here’s another bit of Shakespeare, Hamlet again even. Just because I like it.
“Words, words words”
no subject
I get words all day through
First from him, now from you
Is that all you blighters can do?
(See, that's one of my scripts!)