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Some individuals with ASD (especially those with high-functioning autism and Asperger syndrome) possess well-developed spoken language, with good vocabulary and perfect grammar. However, they still have difficulties with pragmatics (using language for communication) and non-verbal communication.
Let us consider some other common problems experienced by ‘fluent speakers’:
Receptive language
Autistic people may have problems with comprehension because of processing problems. They often cannot keep up with the rate of ‘verbal flow’. When they are trying to find the right words to say, others are already talking about different things. They need time find the right words and say them.
As the difficulties they experience are often ‘invisible’, the interlocutor assumes that communication is successful:
‘Yes’, my mouth was saying automatically in response to the external blah-blah as the battle raged inside me. I had no idea what I’d said yes to and was too distracted to even worry whether the yes would bring me bad consequences… ‘Is it okay?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied automatically as usual, having only half understood the words. Unless someone gave me an explicit choice – ‘Do you want this or not’ – I usually felt compelled to go along, not understanding that in fact I had a choice. (Williams)
Expressive language
The fluency of the speech of people with autism seems to depend on what they are talking about. If the conversation concerns the subject of their special interest their speech may be fluent, complex and sophisticated. If they are not interested in the subject of the conversation, they may struggle to utter the simplest words. They may be literally ‘lost for words’. (They know what they want to say but can’t find the ‘right words’)
Literalness
No matter how ‘verbal’ autistic individuals are, they tend to interpret everything literally. Eventually they may learn the meaning of idioms and common metaphorical phrases. However, they still experience difficulty in understanding ‘empty’ words, irony and humour. They may get in trouble because of trying to do ‘the right thing’, i.e., what they are told, following the instruction to the letter. For example: Told to “pull your socks up” (meaning, ‘start working or studying harder because they have been lazy or careless’), the person can do just that – pulling his/her socks up.
‘Illogical’ communication
If we think about the words and conventional phrases that we use from the autistic perspective, the logic of the following arguments is unbearable: if you feel terrible why say ‘I’m fine’? If you are not interested in how I feel why ask ‘How are you?’
Social & non-verbal communication
A good verbal arsenal does not seem to make it any easier for autistic people to interpret non-verbal cues in order to find out the intentions of the speaker. They find it hard to ‘read’ the meaning of gestures, facial expressions and ‘eye-talk’, and have to learn theoretically the art of conversation, with all the rules of how to initiate the conversation, take turns in the process, be polite (and even lie!):
“It’s hard for me to tell when someone is lying. It took me a very long time, and a lot of painful experience, just to learn what lying is. I have to use cognitive strategies to make up for some basic instincts that I don’t have.” (Sinclair)
“Autistic people… are naïve socially. Their innocence and literalness prevent them from being able to distinguish between foe or friend in many cases… Autistic people generally don’t know the things others know naturally. They can’t be taken for granted, and they can’t be expected to know something just because others know it." (O’Neill).
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