Autism and silly talk.

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I have a low functioning autistic brother who most of the time uses "silly talk". He'll talk about things that happen in the past in a unclear manor like: about he'll say he puts salt on people's corn flakes" and other random nonsense. such as how this girl pees her pants at his work/life skill program. And i know he's telling the truth but why? What does it mean?

I'm just guessing as I don't have LFA, but maybe he's just saying anything that will get your attention so he can have the pleasure of talking with you. Or maybe it makes him feel he's joking or saying something important. Just look at the paper or any media and you'll see the shocking headlines... 'Girl Pees Pants', 'Film Star Spits Dummy' etc. It gets your attention. It's what he sees all the time on TV when they advertise programs.

The main thing you can do to help is accept him whatever he does or says and then he'll feel better about himself. When he feels better about himself he'll be more relaxed and be able to move forward with his speech and behaviour. We all want acceptance in the end.

This is something you have with higher functioning autistic too, but normally to a lesser extent: Not to know when it is approbate to say something which just goes through your brain. The "filter function" from the thoughts to the mouth just does not work that well.

Many autistic people want to be able to make conversation and be liked for it like a normal person. It's just more difficult for them to find the proper things to talk about at the proper time.

yes this is quite common among many autistics, i do this, i say a lot of weird phrases, some of them arent even real words sorta like babbling, like the other day i was going around cat out of bagel, cat out of bagel, cat out of bagel, basically im finding random words in my head and putting them together in a sentence, does it always make sense? no, sometimes its just like a vocal stim. Sometimes its my way of using an expression, like i say oh farooqui john now to everybody that doesnt know me their like wtf, but the ppl that do know me, means its a form of cursing, my own silly talk but has a certian meaning. anyways hope i helped u out alittle.

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Being Normal Is Vastly Overrated

I do this a lot and am AS. For me it's stimming, but I'm also naturally very random when conversing.

I don't exactly know what's silly about it. So... you mean it's silly because it is random? You know, like, it's out of place, not fitting the situation or conversation, you just don't say those things because they're somehow rude?

If that's it, then I think I understand what you mean by silly.

To someone who knows (more about) what is socially appropriate and what is socially inappropriate for someone in a certain situation and of a certain age to say sentences such as the ones you reported you brother says might appear silly because they are inappropriate to say at that moment.

I'm said to be really utmost hf and I have learnt (meaning, I don't get this intuitively at all) what is socially appropriate and what isn't, but there are still several things I say that others my age, with my education and in the same situation would not think of saying or what not dare to say.

When I for example said 'I don't know the answer' in class (other students really thought me crazy and oppositional for saying that) or when I curse when I'm with older people or my friends who just do not curse because they think it's inappropriate. I also had a thing going on with insults until a few we3eks ago- I didn't intend for understand how words like cow to I-will-censor-this haha could hurt anybody but I noticed it gets me attention and people start interacting with me.

Normal children do this sort of thing often. Non-autistic adults too sometimes.

Their motivation is really varying from person to person. Some say it because they don't know yet that you're not supposed to say this, some try to get attention because they do not know how else to draw attention to themselves and get noticed and some others just try out themselves, what they can do what their limits are and so on.

I talk like this a whole lot...a great deal of my vocalization is like this...silly babble speech sing..random nonsense words...repeating phrases just for fun...a lot of it is stimming and I know better...I blurt out random things out of context...but mainly only to people who are used to it so I don't have to explain myself...like Flakey or my other AS-ish friend.....in other words...I know how to keep my mouth shut when it is totally inappropriate...usually.....but not all the time...

i am not the bestest of conversationalists...My very AS-ish friend and I will have whole long conversations of babbling random silly nonsense and repeated words and phrases at each other. It's fun...though I sometimes wonder if he is just mimicking me...

I repeat myself a lot, and I am not very good and talking in complete sentences..and a lot of what I say is very random.

My thing was parroting what people said, I guess they find it annoying

I cringe sometimes when I think about some of the things I used to say.

But, there were artistic and understanding types of people who seemed to enjoy it or thought it was funny.

The thing is, I never intended to be funny, it's just that there were moments in a conversation (if you'd call it that, when I honestly couldn't think of what to say).

It's funny, but I'd talk about objects, ideas, colour, quantity, animals and detail a lot.
I couldn't seem to talk about people or relationships very easily (I honestly didn't know I had to!). I was honestly clueless as to what to say as no-one had really ever told me what to say. I thought that every conversation had to be about something interesting.

When a conversation became emotionally strained or I was stuck for things to say, some things came out very strangely indeed often of referred to details in the physical environment. I thought this was okay for a while because some relatives talk and think in a similar divergent and disjointed way.

I tried to deflect the emotional tension by concentrating on the non-human surroundings.
By looking at the surroundings, I could temporarily avert my gaze from the person I was speaking to so that I could metaphorically "catch my breath" from their eye contact.

I liked comparing things to other things.


I'd say that glockenspiel's sounded like blue raindrops falling into a pond and trumpets sounded red.

Or that scissor blades looked like a silver heron's beak.

Or that the top space of a locker was about the right size to accommodate a common frog.

Or comment on the texture of the brickwork on a building or the lighting arrangements.


If properly tamed and organised properly, this kind of thinking can be very creative and useful.

If not, it just becomes a jumbled and incoherent, chaotic, random load of rubbish.

Leaping and linking ideas together if done well can give flashes of insight.
I think that some disjointed thinking is required for insight; for analysing aesthetics, and commenting on how things work.

"This happens like this (simile) because of this..."


If done properly, lots of metaphors and analogies could be constructed this way.


Sometimes, my pieces of writing have been described as "erratic".

If it's in any way connected, I always made-up nonsense words and names for things. I still do this at home. It must be often enough, because my mother doesn't usually have to ask for a translation when I come out with a made-up word like 'schnoo' when referring to the vacuum cleaner or 'slinky-malink' for the cat.

i "silly talk" although i tend not to in front of people so much now.. anything from random words to mimicking "funny" or strange sounds.. & echolalia (i think) or repeating what others say.. as i'm often alone, i normally repeat lines from movies/tv shows/songs etc, i still want to talk naturally & occasionally silly around people but i get very self-conscious etc & tend to try hard to be sensible

I do silly talk when I'm on my own. And when I'm with my best friend (aspie) we have whole "conversations" of total nonsense, those are the best conversations.

I can stop myself doing this in front of other people, but it's almost compulsive when I'm on my own. Making up silly songs, putting together random words and noises that sound funny.