scriptautistic:

I would say that this particular combination is not typical of autistic speech patterns. This is not to say that it is necessarily unrealistic, just that it is not a combination that is typically characteristic for autism.
To me (not a medical professional), the speech patterns you have
described sounds like pressured speech which is more typical of (hypo)mania, which of course can happen
in autistic characters as well as in allistic characters!

Repetition is common for autistic people who struggle with language – when you are trying to communicate something but don’t have access to the words you need, one can end up repeating the same phrases to try and get someone to understand what you mean. If you are a person who does not have this problem with spoken language, it can worth thinking of the game charades, where if the other players don’t understand the person miming, the mimer often ends up repeating the same gestures again and again, but more emphatically – the player is using the clearest gesture they can think of and it is frustrating that the other players don’t understand. Similarly, some autistic people can end up repeating words phrases, trying to get other people to understand what they mean. This sort of repetition would tend not to be combined with run-on sentences which imply speed (when used in written form at least).

Other options for repetition are a stutter, echolalia, or that the character is giving information that they find exciting and are repeating ideas as opposed to words or phrases. Echolalia can give the impression of “not really making much sense” to onlookers.

Run-on sentences is a slightly tricky one. In written form, run-on sentences often give the impression of rapid speech which, as I said above, doesn’t mix so well with some of the types of repetition. But in real life people talk with run-on sentences all the time. This is an instance where Cat’s advice from this previous post is good:

If you write all of your neurotypical characters’ dialogue [without] including any
of the hesitations, omissions, mix-ups, half-pronounced words and
changes in syntax that naturally happen in oral conversation, and then
you write your autistic character’s dialogue insisting heavily on their
mix-ups and weird syntax, that is setting your character aside from the
others and othering them. You’ve got to be careful to either “clean up”
everyone’s dialogue (which doesn’t mean there will not be any unusual
speech patterns left in your autistic character’s dialogue, but not as
much as there would have been otherwise) or to leave everyone’s as is,
as if it was spoken dialogue.

With ‘omission’ it depends on whether you mean missing out important words when talking or the omission of certain sounds when articulating. Again, both can happen to autistic people, but missing words is less common, whereas missing out inflectional morphemes is more common in autistic people with language problems. “Uh, Snail, what on Earth is an inflectional morpheme?” I hear you ask. My (non-linguist) answer is a small part of the word (morpheme) which changes the grammatical function of the word. In English they come at the end of the word. For example adding -ed turns a verb into past tense (talk vs talked), adding -ing turns a verb into present participle (play vs playing). So some autistic people will tend to use the “wrong” inflection.

It is difficult, because none of what you have said is necessarily wrong, even though it seems to me atypical of an autistic person’s speech. There are so many different ways of speaking! In this case it might make sense for you to send us an example of the character’s speech so that you can more clearly communicate how their speech is unusual. We don’t typically look at people’s writing–we answer questions instead–but in this instance 50-100 words would clarify what you mean in this particular question.

I will finish up by saying that describing an autistic person’s speech as “yapping on and on” can be hurtful. I know what you mean, of course, but it is difficult when one’s natural speech often being criticised and described as annoying. This doesn’t mean that you cannot use that term, I just wanted to let you know that my immediate reaction to that description was one of irritation. I am saying this for two reasons: 1) it is important to know the impact that your words could have on an autistic audience; 2) I may have been automatically prejudiced against your question because of this. I hope that this has not coloured my answer, but apologise if that has happened.

I hope that this has helped 🙂

-Mod Snail
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Yeah, this sounds more like ADHD. Or maybe the two combined? It’s not a very NICE way to say it, but both my son (ADHD+autistic) and I (ADD) talk like this a lot.

I talk very quickly, switch between topics, and often use too many pronouns. Everything is ‘it’, so it’s hard to keep track of what I’m talking about. I also lose words, and fill the spot with ‘ums’ and hand gestures. And I say the wrong words, which can be REALLY confusing. (That might be something other than the two neurodivergencies I’m talking about, though.) I did skip essential parts of stories at times, because I’m constantly thinking ahead in the story and can’t always keep track of what has actually been SAID, so far.

My son doesn’t always pause so that other people can talk. When he can’t think of a word, he’ll repeat the last few over and over until it comes to him. Sometimes his voice fades away a little, and you miss things, or have difficulty focusing on him. He’s also 7 (the age of your character is important to keep in mind), so he can have trouble seeing from other people’s perspective. He might not tell you essential information because he doesn’t realize that other people might not know it.

Both of us REALLY like talking.

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Some things I’d love to see:

• Someone really enjoying the passion the character has. Loving listening to them. (One of the reasons I love my husband.)
• People who have known the character for a long time casually joking with and assisting the character when talking. My family guesses the words I’m stuck on. Pause me and ask, “did you mean _ word?” when I say something wrong. Refer to each other as “Kevin 2” or “Other Nelson.” (I am SO BAD with names.) Be careful with this – don’t focus on how ‘great’ the characters are for doing this, or how weird it is. Just treat it as normal, like inside jokes.
• Don’t say ‘they’re not making much sense.’ The knowledge that some people can’t, or won’t take the time to, understand us hurts. I don’t care if it’s realistic. Let’s not focus on that.
• Two neurodivergent characters talking to each other, and having fun figuring out the other person’s verbal quirks. “Oh! She needs me to do something obvious, like put up my hand, when I have something to say!” “Hmm, I totally do that too!” Etc.