Yesterday, I made this post and I had a BRILLIANT idea!
You know those body stimming gifs and videos that have become really popularly in the autistic community? What if we started doing something like that, but with vocal stims/echolalia?!
Nearly all autistics do some sort of vocal stim. We repeat things we’ve heard from media, we mimic animal noises, we make odd sounds like beeps and honks and hums, and a lot more! But we don’t really get to hear anyone else do it but ourselves or if we are lucky, an autistic we know IRL. That kind of isolation can make us feel self-conscious and ashamed when we vocal stim because even if we know we all do it because it is talked about, we don’t know what it is really like for other people.
That has got to change and I’m starting it right here with myself. It is a little embarrassing to share what I sound like when I vocal stim, do echolalia, or communicate with noises, but that’s why I’m doing this because I know other autistics are embarrassed too! It’s important that autistics get to know all about and hear from a fellow autistic the vocal/echo phenomena that we do.
I just recorded this using the voice memo app on my Iphone, converted it to Mp3 using an online converter once the file was on my computer, and uploaded it on Tumblr using the audio post format. It was really easy! But you can also make a video of you doing it too. You don’t even have to show your face!!! Just draw a picture or write a note saying “These are my vocal stims” and have the video point at that while you “speak” in the background of the video.
I really, really want this to get spread around because of what a positive impact it will have on people and I desperately want other people to do it too! Please, please, please reblog this post even if you don’t vocal stim or don’t want to share your vocal stims, hearing this is a thing might help so many autistics!
If you do do this yourself, please tag it as #actuallyautistic and #vocal stimming or #vocal stim so I (and other autistics) can find your post and reblog it! LET’S MAKE THIS A THING PEOPLE AND SPREAD THE POSITIVITY!!!
If you do make an audio post of your vocal stims/echolalia, feel free to @ me in it or send it to me in DM! I would love to see it and I will definitely reblog it (as long as it doesn’t hurt my ears too much ^_^)!
