Slow of Speech - Not Slow of Mind

When people hear you have a disability, they speak slowly to you... or the area around you... or the person standing next to you... It's what I call the "Therapists' Voice"

It doesn't matter that people like me have an amazing vocabulary and our depth of understanding of any topic that interests us can be the same or deeper than people without this life situation.  Incidentally, I call it a "life situation" more often than I call it a disability or problem because my NLD has both positive and negative sides to it - and it is a lifelong situation, not something that can be helped with an artificial limb or laser surgery.

I try not to blame people for using the Therapists' Voice when speaking to me as they are trying to be helpful.  They don't understand how insulting it is and they want to be kind.

It's true, I speak somewhat slowly and have a naturally low voice.  I enunciate my words - partially because I loath how many people don't; partially because I have so many thoughts running through my head, I have to concentrate to get the sentence out (especially if I'm under stress or am annoyed).

Here's an interesting analogy:

When I was in a class recently, we were reading parts of a manual aloud to each other.

It was a very repetitive text and my attention was waning.

When it was my turn, I enthusiastically read my paragraph - I truly enjoy reading out loud to others.

But this chapter was boring - and repetitive

I finished reading and the group had an emotional shift that I felt and they laughed.

I looked around for a clue as to why they were laughing...

Apparently, I had drifted off at the end of the final sentence without noticing.

That line had been repeated so many times, I guess I just stopped.

Later in the program, some of my classmates retold the story and it ended up being something we could laugh about together.

Please remember that there are lots of different life situations people face and rarely do they call for the Therapists' Voice.  Instead, speak normally and ask questions.  If you're not sure how to communicate with ANYONE - ask questions.  Don't assume - ask que............