Asperger's and public speaking

[Mr Allen]

In May 2003, I stood up in front of over 100 women at tn Autism conference in Northern Ireland and did s speech, they all loved it and I got a "standing ovation" from the crowd, probably because for some reason the women loved my strong Yorkshire accent.

Even though I was accompanied by 2 people from Barnsley, whose accents were stronger than mine but they didn't get the ovations.

 

[the friendly aspie]

i have to say i love public speaking. i have always loved talking on microphones. its one of my hobbies and talents. just this past weekend i was at our bowling group. and i did the announcments for them. and on sunday i was at a hockey game and announced the winner of a game they did. for me being on a mic is therapeutic. one day i hope to have an actual job of it. every time i do some kind of public speaking event people tell me how brave i am. and how they could never do it. but the thing is i could never do it without a mic. its weird but true.

 

[Bella Pines]

I agree with the above, I don't think it's an aspie thing. In fact the reverse, I really don't care what anyone in the room thinks of me and often consider myself more intelligent (not arrogance, factually driven ) and so have no problem standing up and talking.

I manage development teams and so have had a lot of coders shy away from public speaking. I often take the classic route and assign them training courses and encourage them into situations where they have to speak to an audience. Practice in an environment that doesn't matter seems effective. In a friendly environment where it doesn't matter if you run off the stage to throw up (happened once), or if your teeth start chattering uncontrollably. But I would advise like any fear, to face it head on and persist.

Wow, I just realized I sound like an absolute cow of a manager don't I! But I assure you, it's always worked out. I've only encouraged those who actually want to overcome it, and they have always been better for it. Communication skills are useful in all sorts of situations.

 

[tducey]

Despite being Autistic I don't mind public speaking. I took a public speaking course in college. Also as part of my job we have to do presentations about various subjects related to disabilities.