Speech Parameters:
- The nonverbal aspects of speech are often the more obvious indicators of autism.
- In the typical flow of connected speech we continually modulate prosody and voice parameters to convey meaning, express mood and emotions, match context, adjust to listener needs, and follow cultural rules.
- When interacting with others, subtle and nuanced changes in prosody and voice are required to achieve correct emphasis and tone.
- Differences are noticeable and immediately draw attention away from the message and to the speaker, disrupting the social interaction.
- How sentences are broken into phrases carries meaning as well as length and number of pauses.
- Rate is varied in sentences, conversations, contexts, and listeners.
- Stess applied to individual words or sentences can convey meaning and emotion.
- Loudness and pitch change also in sentences, conversations, contexts, and listeners.
- Laryngeal quality can be clear or strident and convey mood and emotion.
- Laryngeal resonance can be very unique to the speaker and may involve unwanted nasal diffences.
- In social situations an autistic speaker may have poorly modulated speech. Echolalic speech may be well modulated for the context in which it was heard.
- Autistic persons who have connected speech usually have accurate articulation.
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