Am I better off staying nonverbal?

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So do I. I see many similarities.
I.E only speaking when something is needed, flustering, etc.
I went silent to all of my friends and teachers at school for 6 months and communicated via writing. This made me happy.

I like this thread a lot.

I have mornings where I'm nonverbal because my voice in my throat is too physically overwhelming to tolerate before I'm properly awake, and it's incredibly hard, like wearing a gag; I talk to myself all the time, and not being able to feels awful. I wouldn't recommend returning to total nonverbalism if possible. Do you know what's causing the plateau in speech therapy?

StarTrekker, you cant be a true treker, not when I seen EVERY episode short of deep space nine, and you haven't. have you? I have sat back and watched every episode in a row to where people got sick of it and me. in fact I seen so many sifi movies even past star trek, there is nothing left to watch up to modern date. I am 51 years old, I seen it all in its unfolding and then some.

As for non verbal, I am not either, I only end up expressing my self over the net. and even then, it seems to become pointless.

Not exactly. Just that I can't seem to take it any further lately, like I've reached my limitation.
They said I would never be able to talk at all when I was little, so I've come a ways from that at least.

I keep hearing that Clint Eastwood line in my head, "A man has got to know his limitations".

Yes but Clint Eastwood is a super rich conservative. He doesn't have very many limitations.

Nice avatar, Ezra.

I still think it sounds like being frustrated is what's getting in your way rather than that you've reached your limit. Sometimes there's a period of increased frustration right before we take a giant leap forward. But it's up to your speech therapist to help you past, help you find a way around being so frustrated. Can you ask for help, and will she listen if you tell her how frustrated you are feeling?

At the risk of derailing the thread, you are correct, I have only seen the first two and a half seasons of DS9 because I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as TOS, TNG, Voyager or Enterprise, all of which I have seen in their totality, movies included. I didn't enjoy DS9's characters; they were all flat and boring, with the exception of Odo, and none of them made for interesting TV. I also didn't like the plotlines of the episodes, they were too politically based, with every other episode involving Starfleet and the Bajorans getting into arguments witht the Cardassian government; I prefer action, explosions and mortal peril to important characters in my episodes. If you'd like to continue the discussion, feel free to PM me, but for now we have to get back to Ezra's problem.

Its awesome that you can type and express yourself here. I don't think it hurts to try to learn skills to be more verbal, like yes we struggle with this but I mean it also opens up a lot of opportunities to make friends if we can communicate with them. Also, as said above about emergency situations it would be good to have some basic skills so you could tell people what is needed in an emergency situation.

LoL, agree, about the only thing I liked about DS9 was Odo. darn, you seen allot, nearly but not quite as much as I did, I am pleasantly surprised.

As for this thread, I am used to being a thread killer

yes. You should absolutely start talking and then show my brother how to do it. Lazy bastards! (being facetious).

Frustration is natural and normal. What you're trying to do is hard!! But don't give up just because you're frustrated. If you decide you want to live a non-verbal life because you prefer it, then so be it. There are consequences to that decision, but maybe you can live with them. But, if the main reason you're considering remaining non-verbal is because you're frustrated and overwhelmed, then that is not a good enough reason. Sometimes you have to fight for what you want in life. And it gets hard, but you can do it!! I am proud of what you have done thus far, and I truly believe that you can accomplish anything you decide to work hard for!!

Oh she knows all about it and we go over it. I mean that's part of the therapy.
And she knows how to work with autistic kids and when I'm reaching meltdown and all that.
But I mean lately I've just been crying through most of it because I know how badly I'm
doing but just can not get past it. Just going in circles these days



Hey I consider Star Trek talk in my thread a bonus

I'm sorry, Ezra.

Sometimes you just go through the motions and wait and hope things get better. They usually do.

I feel sad that you're so frustrated about this. It is possible though that you have appeared to reach a plateau, but that actually your brain is continuing to really work on oral-motor skills, and is kind of reorganizing itself a bit. Think of when a computer is giving you the message "processing... processing..." and you can't see what it is doing but there is actually a lot going on under the hood. You may have a plateau for a while, and then suddenly make a leap forward. I'm glad that it sounds like you have a good SLP.

When I get frustrated and feel like I'm at a plateau in something I'm working hard on, I try to remember Dori from Finding Nemo: "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming..." I have faith that if you keep going, you will break through this plateau and maybe even have a nice jump in skills.

It is hard, but your 13 year-old brain is still plastic.

Yes, keep at it. The temptation to quit is normal. But don't. Unless you want to live a chronically disabled life (which I sure hope you don't), it is necessary that you learn to speak verbally.

P.S. And you're not going in circles. Circles are a prelude to a major breakthrough.