Speech Tone

[Voltaic]

I have been told my speak tone is abnormal. Like others here, I say sound robot in a monotone voice, or just different, with an abnormal tone fluctuation. I have been told My speech resembles that of Sheldon's from the big bang theory, I am not to sure how I feel about that.

I told one of the people I volunteer with I had autism. I knew him for years, and because of the nature of the place I volunteer and the people, I knew it would be revived positively.

He responded with support, but also commenting on how he guessed something along those lines because of my speech. I didn't know it was so obvious up until that point. I kinda guessed my voice didn't sound as it did in recordings, but apparently it does.

I don't know how I feel about this, but it isn't good. I still have trouble coming to terms with all that makes me, me. With time, I can accept myself, but I am not sure about other people. Having a speech impediment, if you would call it that is something you can't hide. I can't trust everyone to treat me the same as everyone else.

What can you do? By nature of autism, you will be treated differently. Though, the less the better. Maybe I should develop a thicker skin, but for now, this is heavy on my mind.

What about you all? I hear a lot about monotone being a common thing, but I can imagine people on the spectrum developing a unique tone fluctuation.

 

[Puppywings49]

I speak in monotone sometimes. More often, I speak really fast, sometimes too fast for people to understand or even my mouth to keep up, so I end up stuttering or just spouting a stream of words that no one understands.

My Spanish teacher, who has been both my History and English teacher at some point in the last two years as well, was involved in the process of my evaluation, and she said that my voice was one of the first things that clicked for her when I brought a potential autism diagnosis up.

A lot of people have told me that they just pretend they understand what I'm saying sometimes. Which is pretty alarming because I can't tell if people actually know what I'm saying.

 

[MKS]

I've always had a monotone voice. In the past year or so I've tried to sound a bit more enthusiastic when talking to others, but I'm not sure I've been doing enough. After a chat with a good friend of mine, it has occurred to me that, while I try to sound more enthusiastic, it feels to me as if I'm overdoing it. However, he has told me that I pretty much always under-do it. I also have a deep voice so I'm not sure that helps.

I think with practice, tone fluctuation might come more naturally. Perhaps with time, at least for me, I might just get used to the 'overdoing it' feeling, and maybe it will start to be natural? I don't know. I'm not 100% sure I'm on the spectrum; I think I might be, but I'm still figuring that out.

Have you tried tone fluctuations in your voice? If so, do you feel like you're overdoing it?

 

[Voltaic]

Have you tried tone fluctuations in your voice? If so, do you feel like you're overdoing it?

Sometimes I have a monotone voice, but not always. Naturally, I have fluctuations, but the way I do it sets me out.

 

[Nervous Rex]

I'm pretty monotonous*, but I try hard to put inflection into my voice when I speak, because I used to be frequently misinterpreted as angry or hostile.

My counselor is someone I know in a social circle by coincidence. When he diagnosed me, he said, "This explains why I found you so hard to read before." Apparently, I have a monotonous voice, too.

*How monotonous? I put a lawyer to sleep at work once.

 

[SplendidSnail]

My diagnosis says my speech is somewhat monotone, which is interesting because I can remember as a young child being told that I speak with too much expression.

At some point I over-corrected and never knew it?

 

[55853]

It was also mentioned in my diagnosis. If it makes it any better, people don't tend to "put it together" that someone has autism, but once you tell them, they can then see how things connect. At least in my experience, but I've not told many people. So it's not as blatantly obvious as it may seem.

 

[Progster]

I have been told that I'm monotone and flat, and also in my diagnostic report, it is mentioned that my speech is 'stilted' but I don't know what he meant by that.

 

[Gritches]

I'll go monotone if I'm overwhelmed or upset. It's actually a sign to look for in me to tell how stressed I am, because if I'm to stressed to bother faking inflection then I'm probably pretty wiped out.

 

[Nightingale121]

I kinda guessed my voice didn't sound as it did in recordings, but apparently it does.

I think it is quite natural to guess that one's voice doesn't sound as it does in recordings because it is normal to perceive one's own voice differently than everyone else.

You can read some more detailed explanations here:
Why Does My Voice Sound Different on a Recording?
Why does my voice sound so different when it is recorded and played back?

So recordings of other people's voices should sound closer to their actual voices to you than your own voice does.

@OkRad posted a thread for voice recordings some time ago (https://www.autismforums.com/threads/your-voice.23816/). There weren't many participants though.
The aforementioned effect of the perceived voice difference could be one of the reasons for people to hesitate to share a voice recording as it often sounds weird, uncomfortable or "wrong" to oneself.

My diagnosis says my speech is somewhat monotone, which is interesting because I can remember as a young child being told that I speak with too much expression.

At some point I over-corrected and never knew it?

I sometimes seem to overdo it and speak with too much expression, in particular while talking about something I'm really into or excited about.
In addition to this I tend to speak too loudly in this case without noticing it. My mother often reminds me not to shout while talking to her. Then I adjust my speech, but often increase my volume again after a while. My excitement just gets out of control and so does my voice, I guess.

However, if I'm not in my "excitement mode", I'll rather tend to do the opposite of the above and speak not loudly enough and mumble, so people have trouble to understand me. In these circumstances I also might appear less excited or happy than I actually am.
Plus, I try to correct my over-excited tone in specific situations when it's not appropriate and might over-correct it then.

I have been told that I'm monotone and flat, and also in my diagnostic report, it is mentioned that my speech is 'stilted' but I don't know what he meant by that.

I have been told that my speech can be quite stilted as well.
A quick research brought up the following definitions and explanations which resemble my previous knowledge of the expression:
stilted | Definition of stilted in English by Oxford Dictionaries
Stilted speech - Wikipedia
It is even mentioned in the Wikipedia article that stilted speech can be a sign of autism.