Your Preferred Method of Communication

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I've been thinking about speech and communication for a while now. Apart from instances of sensory and emotional overload, I'm perfectly normal as far as my verbal functioning goes, indeed, speech and language are considerable strengths of mine. However, I find speaking to be tedious, tiring, and annoying. I hate the sound of my own voice, and dislike the sound of human speech in general. I find it ineloquent, unmusical. Obviously there's no way for me to make everyone else stop talking, but I have often wished I could just switch my voice off, and communicate via typing or writing. I'm interested in your thoughts on the subject as well. If you can speak, are you okay with it, or do you wish you could use other methods? If you can't, or if it's limited, do you wish you could speak normally, or do you prefer your current method of communication? Perhaps when I move out of my parents' house and there's no one around to judge me, I'll switch to being non-verbal for a while to see how I like it.

As a kid (and to a much lesser extent now, educators really beat it out of me) I used to communicate a lot using grunting sounds and the tone of my voice without opening my mouth and hand gestures to communicate.
Thumbs up or down for yes/no answers, stuff like that.
If I could just use that for everything without problems, that'd be great.

I like both typing and spoken word, as long as I'm not required to make eye contact or look at someone. For strangers, typing works best. But I am ok on the phone (it took a lot of practice over the years).

Rather like Yigeren, it depends on who I'm communicating with. The phone is fine, although I prefer calling others to them calling me as it means I can prepare. Email was great at first but it's becoming rather a scourge, plus people's language is getting sloppy and formulaic. I love writing letters and try to do it as much as possible, but it's a dying art; a lot of people can't write with a pen any more - such a shame, as graphology is an interest of mine. Talking face to face is great with a small group of like-minded people or one person; crowds are awful.

On places like WP I prefer to communicate by pm, it seems more personal. The trouble with forum conversations is that you can get distracted by the other person's online identity. I got talking to someone here about 7 months ago, and we switched to direct, private email almost immediately. As a result we have developed what I hope will be a lifelong friendship.

And I really like Skype, but I think a lot of people don't.

I think verbal communication is a strength of mine as well, although it takes quite a lot of effort and energy. I much prefer communicating in writing because I can think more clearly.

I strongly dislike speaking on the phone and can get quite flustered.

I do okay, but not great on the phone. I don't like making phone calls, really. But I have to do it--so I do it.

I do okay, but not great speaking in person.

I do better in written communication--though I'm not as good as I used to be.

I'm not a real lover of person-to-person contact--though I like it sometimes. I enjoy it most when I have it, then I'm able to withdraw to my home or my bedroom.

I have social anxiety, so I have to get to know the person to be able to talk to them in person. Otherwise I don't mind verbal communication, small groups or one on one. However where I am can affect that as well, I may be with people I am comfortable with, but the place/situation may be too crowded (eg. we were at a really loud coffee shop the other day, one that I have been to before, but it was super crowded and noisy) and makes it impossible for me to hear, talk etc. For people I am not so familiar with (especially when it comes to work and have not met them), I prefer to email or text. With regards to phones, I have to be really close to the person to want to talk by phone with them- however for work I have to occasionally, but I'm not happy about it. Usually if it's not immediate family or important work stuff, I let the phone ring and go to voicemail.

I'm becoming more verbal but I still use a lot of sign language.
For some situations (such as visiting my psychologist) I need to type on my iPad because I can't organise my thoughts and communicate them clearly when I speak.
The phone is still my biggest hurdle.
If I can't text I have a great deal of anxiety using the phone.
I have a double challenge of not being able to speak or hear properly.
Rather ironically, anxiety about whether I'll be able to speak when someone answers usually ensures that I can't speak.
And then I'll stress about not hearing properly and talk over the top of them just to get my message across. Ugh.
There's the NRS where you can make text calls over the Internet and someone will speak for you and then type back a response.
It's glitchy though - haven't used that for a while.

I'm hearing impaired also, and even though I wear hearing aids, I avoid the telephone as much as possible. In addition I do not have the fine manuel dexterity required for texting on small objects, thus I've never sent a "tweet" or any other form of text message. I would have to say e-mails are my favourite way of communicating, although I despised "writing" letters back in the pre-internet days due to having really bad penmanship (I was never able to learn cursive). I also find mailing things to be a major nuisance and inconveinence, so in my business dealings I always try to use the internet first, then a one-on-one personal visit as a second choice. Telephoning is only a last resort if the other two methods fail. FWIW, I'll NEVER answer the telephone at our house unless I recognise the number that's showing on the caller ID.

Talking is OK for me, as long as I have things to say. I hate talking on the phone. Written communication is pretty good, though not always that much better than talking. I think I would like texting, but I don't have a cell phone. I'm probably going to get one soon, though.

I find some voices and conversations to be melodic -- not as much as actual music, but there are similarities for me.

That said, I think I process speech in the same way I process music. (The symbolism of words is an added layer that I had to learn over time and routinely forget about.)



I prefer to write. Written communication often (not always) means I get more time to come up with the words to say something and/or to process what someone else has said. I also find it much easier to process words visually....although I think if I had every real-time conversation in writing I'd still struggle with not having enough time.

I can speak, and however-much-of-the-time I sound normal/fluent when I do (although sounding normal and actually communicating or actually having normal language abilities at work behind the scenes are two different things.....sometimes I use echolalic/scripted speech without meaning or understanding [i.e. space filler, following/guessing at patterns] and sometimes I can articulate stuff only because I'm using words I've spent a long time -- hours to years -- searching for and then putting together and memorizing/rehearsing).... while the rest of the time I don't sound normal/fluent (or am silent despite wanting to communicate something, because I can't find the words).

I wish I had an easier time with words or at least that my ability to articulate things in speech was at the same level as my ability to articulate things in writing.

I hate phones. I will avoid making a phone call for days if it isn't urgent. I try to do things online if possible. There are still many things where the only way to do them is over the phone. It is 2015. Phone only is as outdated as paper checks.

I can talk, give presentations etc. but I dislike doing it. Talking to someone I know if it is something interesting is less of a problem. Someone I don't know or someone being difficult is more of a challenge. I don't like being put on the spot and some people will be irate if you don't have an answer for them right that second.

I work at home now so the only actual talking I have to do is with the daughter for her school work or random discussions around the house. Working in an office having to talk most of the day was exhausting. Writing all day doesn't bother me.

That seems as if that would be very difficult to deal with on a daily basis. I think it would be very complicated to try to explain to people. Most people assume that if someone has difficulty with speech, that they are either hearing impaired or intellectually disabled.

I have a distant relative with a young son that is unable to speak more than a few words, but his hearing is normal. I have not met him, so I'm not sure what his diagnosis is, but he is not intellectually disabled and I'm reasonably certain he is not autistic either.

Damn you and I are similar in communication issues, even though I have batlike hearing sensitivity and misophonia and you have a hearing loss! I can be okay speaking if it is just with one or a few people and there is no background noise I have to scream over, because raising my voice is a huge problem for me. But get me in front of a group with even traffic noise, stressed about whether my voice will even work or not, and my voice completely craps out. I had hideousness with this just last night that is sending me scurrying back to the speech pathologist demanding that surgery is needed to fix this.
It's a speech disorder, sure, but I believe surgical methods could fix it for good. The speech therapist disagrees - but last time a specialist disagreed with me, turned out I was right and they were not. It stresses me out talking because in order to actually talk I have to speak softly, and people can't hear me, constantly ask me to repeat myself and lean into my personal space to hear what I'm saying.
Anyway. I loathe talking for this reason - I have an unresolved speech disorder that makes it painful and sound horrible and sometimes, not work at all. I hate phones, too, so no good there. I much prefer text and email, and I will let anyone who communicates with me regularly know this. No, I will not pick up the phone. Texting or emailing, I will respond to.

My husband is NT but HOH (lost his hearing at age 7). He can get by signing ASL if needed but mostly relies on reading lips with the use of his hearing aides. I do not have a problem expressing myself verbally but I also hate the sound of my voice and I think my audio processing skills are low or I just have a difficult time keeping up in conversation about topics that are not interesting to me. I would much rather communicate through email or text messaging. It gives me time to read and understand what the person is saying and think of how to respond appropriately. However, lately my husband and I have been brushing up on our ASL skills, especially when his hearing aides aren't working. I think I feel much more comfortable using ASL than having to actually be verbal and hear my voice. If I was fluent enough in ASL and knew I could get by doing so I probably would. For now, text messaging and e-mail is the best form of communication for me.

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Last edited by envirozentinel on 30 Dec 2015, 10:00 am, edited 1 time in total.: inappropriate content