Autistic children and accents

[clannish93]

Hi there, I work at a school with an autistic child who uses an American accent. When I talk to him I use the same accent. I have now been criticised by a colleague to stop talking in that stupid accent because it is not teaching the child to speak "properly". Therefore, I was wondering, should I use my normal accent or is it okay to use the child's accent when talking to them.

Use your normal accent. If you met a Scottish person would you talk to them in a Scottish accent?

What do you mean, he uses an American accent? He puts it on?

There's no benefit to the child of you mimicking the accent so I wouldn't bother.

I have an autistic child and no I wouldn’t speak to her in an accent 🤦🏻

Why do you talk back in an American accent?

I know one autistic child who does this, his main interest is Marvel films, he’s often in character so talks like them. Those around it just talk normally and don’t make a big deal about it.

It’s not unusual for an autistic person to speak in an American accent but it’s weird that you are doing the same when interacting with the child.

Very common for autistic children

Why are you talking in an American accent?

This is extremely weird of you to to do, I am assuming this is a joke.

I have come across this when I was teaching. An autistic child speaking in an American accent. It wasn’t something we corrected. I don’t understand why you would need to speak in an American accent to the child? If a child had a ‘natural’ accent different to yours would you change your natural accent? I do recall an OFSTED inspector asking us whereabouts in America the child was from. That was funny.

Extremely common.

No OP, you don't copy people's accents when you talk to them. It's weird.

Why would you imitate someone? You wouldn't do that to a NT person - or if you did they'd definitely think you were strange or taking the p*ss.

Definitely try to use your normal accent.

It's not putting it on ffs. It's common in autistic children.

It’s quite common. I worked in a special school and a lot of the kids had YouTube American accents. I’m American and the accents were almost caricatures of the American accent. It was like I was stuck on a John Wayne movie set, the accents were so exaggerated. My own DS is on the spectrum and does not have an American accent. He’s a standard Londoner despite being on the spectrum and living with a Californian.
Don’t mirror the pupils’ way of speaking. It’s not beneficial or necessary. Just be you.

You should speak to the child in the same accent you speak to everyone else in the room. If you were working with an adult with an Indian accent would you use an Indian accent to talk to them?

Firstly autistic people speak in a very flat way which some people think sounds American. Secondly they lack socialisation with other people and often pick up their speech patterns from television. No he is not putting it on, it’s common among autistic people.

My son is autistic, he does NOT talk in a flat tone and he does NOT lack socialisation. That’s an extremely sweeping generalisation!

It's not uncommon apparently. I can't imagine why you would copy anyone's accent when talking to them though. It's a very, very weird thing to do!

As an autistic individual and mum to an autistic my first thought was about the child. Have you asked them what they want? Are you the funny/cool member of staff that does the accent they like? Are you the member of staff that quietly annoys them as you’re muscling on their thing?

Why are you swearing? The child might have been American -that’s all I wanted to know. If it’s not his “normal accent”, how would you describe what he’s doing? I know lots of autistic children. Some have a somewhat robotic way of speaking but none has an American accent.

DS2 is autistic and speaks with a slightly English accent when we are Scottish and live in Scotland. I'd find it very odd if people working with him adopted the same accent.
SOMES autistic people have a very flat affect and intonation when they speak. Others don't.

It’s common for young autistic children to talk in an American accent. It is NOT common for staff working with them to attempt to copy this! How bizarre!

Very much a sweeping generalisation! My DS is actually very outgoing, chatty, and sociable. What is true is that if a child, ASD or NT, is watching way too much YouTube, they’ll pick up that real corn dog American accent. My DD calls it The YouTube Shorts accent.

I don't know about talking "properly" but do you speak with an American accent because you feel you want to relate to the child better or is it because you have some form of echolalia (or something) where you start speaking similarly to the person you're in a conversation with?

If the former, I don't think it's necessary unless the child has picked up on it and likes it too. If it's the latter, then I don't think you can help it, can you?

By the way, the child is speaking "properly", just with a different accent. It's normal among ND people.