#nonspeaking characters

[cripplecharacters]

Hello. Is there a list of anything that you want to see more in mute/non-speaking fictional characters? Are there any tropes/stereotypes that i need to be wary of? Thanks!

Hi!

We would love to see:

All sorts of AAC methods (high tech, low tech, and no tech)

Disabilities other than "functionally abled but magically just can't speak", like cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, language processing disorders, situational mutism, apraxia, etc.

On that note, if your character can't speak because their tongue got cut out, which seems to be the major reason to have a nonspeaking character in fiction, that will affect their quality of life in a lot of ways other than being unable to speak. Commit to actually portraying that, please. Or just pick another reason they don't speak!

Fewer characters who are hearing and use sign language. Not that it never happens, but it makes up the vast majority of sign language representation in fiction and pop culture, despite being a very small percentage of actual signers in real life.

If you want a signing character, please consider making a Deaf character! (Think about how easy it is if you already have a character translating what your signing character is saying: just have them interpret spoken language too. You're now like 3/4 of the way to having solid Deaf representation.)

Nonverbal characters who are physically capable of making noise, like grunting, laughing, squealing, etc. even though they can't actually speak. These sounds can be communicative or non-communicative.

Or using echolalia, accidental mouth words, or other non-communicative speech in the case of autistic or intellectually disabled characters!

Mod Rock and mod Sasza

[nonspeakingkiku]

We keep seeing stuff about the nonspeaking character in Carl the Collector being the first animated character voiced by a nonspeaker, but that's not actually true. The first was Renee in Loop. She was voiced by Madison Bandy who is a nonspeaker.

[cripplecharacters]

is there a difference between the terms non verbal, non speaking and mute? I've seen them all used for seemingly the same conditions/to describe the same thing but by different people.

Hello,

Non-verbal vs non-speaking is mostly a matter of preference, as well as some intra-community differences. You can see this post talk about it, or this one. You will sometimes see it used interchangeably.

Generally the most common type of difference these are used for is that someone non-verbal experiences language problems, and might not be able to communicate with language (including AAC) either fluently or in general. It often implies intellectual disability, autism, or brain damage with cognitive symptoms (rather than purely motor ones).

On the other hand, someone non-speaking can have a mechanical problem, like inability to move or coordinate their mouth, or have had their voice box removed, or some other, usually physical, condition. It often implies something like paralysis (ALS for example), dysarthria, having a tracheostomy, or surviving a head-and-neck cancer. Some people might use non-speaking over non-verbal to emphasize that they have linguistic abilities, just not the ability to physically produce speech.

Non-speaking might sometimes be suggested as the "better" option because "not everyone can speak, but everyone has language!", which is not always true for those who are non-verbal. Some people don't have any meaningful linguistic capability, and communicate exclusively without language. There are valid and important communication methods that don't rely on it.

These are specifications that aren't used much, but are something I noticed regardless. Most of the time, they're either exact synonyms or pure matter of preference. Non-speaking is also a newer term to my understanding, so someone older might be more likely to use non-verbal. Many people who have language disabilities, because of their disability, will not differentiate these words. The difference, when it's there, is rather minor in the grand scheme of things.

As a bonus, there is also (rarely) oral vs non-oral. Someone could be oral, i.e. produce sound, but not speaking or verbal, because the sounds do not form speech or maybe aren't communicative or even purposeful. Think of someone who can only groan or laugh. You can also sometimes see it to emphasize that someone communicating with sign language is both using language (thus, verbal) and is speaking (thus, speaking), but does not do so orally specifically. Other people would consider that non-speaking because signing is signing, speaking is oral speaking. And so on...

Mute is more complicated. At least in my view it's rather outdated when it comes to describing people who don't ever talk. The only places I still see it used is situational (also called selective) mutism, which is a real medical condition, and "deaf-mute", which is a pejorative term. I don't really see many either non-verbal or non-speaking people also identify as mute, but out of the two it's probably closer to the "non-speaking" implication. But it generally strikes me as a term someone else would describe a person who can't talk, rather than for that person to describe themself with (with the exception of situational mutism). But it could be simply a matter of a social circle.

If any followers have additional insight feel free to share in the notes.

mod Sasza

(addition by Mod Rock: deaf-mute is generally considered outdated terminology to refer to a Deaf person who doesn't speak, but there are some Deaf people who reclaim the term stylized as DeafMute to emphasize their decision not to vocalize as part of their Deaf identity.)

[cripplecharacters]

Can My Character be Deaf and Non-speaking?

[Plain Text: Can my character be Deaf and non-speaking?]

Short answer: absolutely! This is not uncommon at all.

Long answer: what you mean by non-speaking is going to influence a lot about this character and how they navigate the world.

Deafness makes it more difficult to speak, because d/Deaf people don't pick up language through auditory reception.

If a character is born d/Deaf, especially if they have Deaf family, they may not do very well at speech therapy or even bother going to speech therapy at all. They likely have a noticeable Deaf accent if they do speak. (See the guide on Deaf Speech [link] for more information about Deaf accents!)

A lot of d/Deaf people are told that their voice sounds weird, so they might feel self-conscious about voicing and choose not to do it. They might also prefer not to voice, even or perhaps especially if they have a less noticeable Deaf accent, because hearing people assume voicing equals hearing ability.

If a Deaf person has early access to sign language, they might never feel a pressure to speak, since they have an accessible first language. Alternately, if they were language deprived, they might never have learned to speak, since d/Deaf people do not pick up spoken language naturally.

In short, there are plenty of Deaf people who don't speak at all, just because they are Deaf. This has historically been called "deaf-mute" or "deaf and dumb" which are considered offensive terms. However, some Deaf people have reclaimed the term DeafMute to describe their experiences as Deaf people who do not voice. As with any reclaimed term, please don't use this to describe your characters unless you are Deaf yourself, or working closely with a Deaf person who can advise you.

If your character is non-speaking or nonverbal for a reason other than Deafness, that can be a totally different life experience. The Deaf community tends to treat Deafness as not being a disability at all; DeafDisabled people are a large but distinct subset of the Deaf community.

Being d/Deaf and having a physical disability that impacts speech (and possibly also signing) like cerebral palsy or apraxia is a different experience than being non-speaking for Deafness alone. Someone who is Deaf and unable to speak because of physical disability might use AAC in both Deaf and hearing spaces. Or, they may be able to sign but not speak, depending on the exact disability, although sign language requires a good amount of fine motor control.

Being autistic, intellectually disabled, or cognitively disabled and d/Deaf is also its own unique experience. Deafness may end up masked due to developmental disability--many deaf children whose deafness is not caught at birth are assessed for autism before being assessed for hearing loss. Low responsiveness to stimuli or less ability to follow directions from an audiologist can also make diagnosing deafness in developmentally disabled people hard.

Some developmentally disabled people, both Deaf and hearing, use some signs as a communication method, but many struggle with language as a whole, not just speech, and won't pick up a full sign language. Again, a visual method of AAC is probably helpful. They may also require other Deaf people to sign more slowly or clearly to them, use fewer words or a simplified vocabulary, or switch to a different method of communication entirely (like writing or picture cards) depending on their receptive language skills. Some Deaf people get very frustrated slowing down their sign language for others, even other d/Deaf people, which can lead to isolation.

Being Deaf and developmentally disabled has many other challenges. Deafness can compound with lower situational awareness. Both signing and stimming are often seen as dangerous behavior by abled hearing people, especially to law enforcement. For a d/Deaf and developmentally disabled person who often interacts with hearing people, they may be more reliant on communication partners to help translate.

Disabilities like situational mutism can also affect d/Deaf people. For signers, situational mutism will probably affect their ability to sign, not just voice (if they do voice), but they may feel comfortable writing.

Being DeafDisabled is a unique experience, to navigate being disabled in both the Deaf and hearing communities. Deafness is often comorbid with other disabilities, so there are lots of people who are d/Deaf and otherwise disabled, but the exact disability will shape how someone interacts with each community.

(Because many people ask about this, the inability to speak without a neurological or psychiatric disability is pretty rare. Damage to the vocal cords or throat account for very few cases of mutism, and usually do not result in a total inability to voice. Please try and represent more complex and underrepresented disabilities than just making a character otherwise abled but unable to speak for no clear reason, which is unfortunately the most common non-speaking representation in fiction.)

In summary, please consider why your character cannot or does not speak. The nature of their disability will shape how they interact with other people, both d/Deaf and hearing, and that changes your approach to writing.

Keep writing, and I'm happy to answer more questions!

Mod Rock

[cripplecharacters]

Hello!

I’m autistic and have been writing a story where one of the characters is also autistic and completely nonverbal. The story takes place in a magical setting where everyone has latent magic, and it is considered a part of life.

My question relates to how my character communicates. In the story, he uses illusions to communicate through images and colors to show how he’s feeling. Sometimes his magic grow big with strong emotions creating very realistic illusions that affect the world around him. But that is related to how magic is connected to emotions in this world, and is shown to happen to other characters with their magic.

My problem is if this would be considered a magical ‘cure’ for his disability.

In this setting, Magic is as integral as technology is in the real world. (As in it’s a part of life and integrated into laws and such.)

In the story he has problems communicating with people he doesn’t know, since they don’t understand the meaning of a certain color or image. I plan on making it work like AAC cards, but want to make sure the magic itself isn’t erasure.

Is there anything I should avoid or steer clear of in regards to this character? Or ways I can add more context to the disability community in the story?

Hello,

Actually, that's a good idea. It's realistic. In a non-magic world, this character would rely on nonverbal communication and small verbalizations, which work exactly how you intend to make this magic work- the people who know the character can speak his language, understand what certain things mean, use their experience with him to read what he's projecting and respond accordingly. But when people don't know what certain things mean, they can't understand what he's trying to convey or might only be able to understand a tiny piece, not the clearer picture people who know him can get. It's accurate, you're just using magical abstracts instead of body language.

Erasure would be if his magical illusions were an audio of what he means (which can sometimes be accurate via echolalia or mimicking someone, but it's complicated and not going to work nearly as well as people think it would,) or a projection of text that spells out what he's trying to get across. What you're doing isn't that. This is remarkably close to how this works in real life.

Mod Aaron

[cripplecharacters]

Hi, level 1 autistic here. Is the word nonverbal offensive? I thought it was offensive since it implies level 2/3 autistics and others who don't use physical speech cannot communicate (at all) when lots of these people can use ASL or AAC or other communication forms, and that i should use nonspeaking instead.

Hi asker,

Generally speaking, no, it isn't inherently offensive.

Nonverbal literally means not related to spoken language — like nonverbal communication referring to expressions. "Verbal" is often used to refer to speech, and someone who does not use speech can therefore be accurately described as nonverbal.

The problem here is not the actual word 'nonverbal.' The problem is the assumption that all people who cannot speak out loud with their mouths are completely unable to communicate. That assumption can happen with or without the word 'nonverbal.'

You are right in that some people do prefer the term nonspeaking because they use AAC or ASL (or any of the other many, many sign languages that exist) to communicate with words, and they are using verbal to relate to words as opposed to spoken language. So just because it's not offensive doesn't mean that some people prefer to use nonspeaking for themselves and/or others. You will also find many people who are completely indifferent or who prefer the term nonverbal.

However, do keep in mind there are also autistic people, as well as people with other disabilities, who do in fact have trouble with language itself, not just the physical act of speaking. This isn't something we can brush off; many of these people wouldn't fit the definition of 'nonspeaking' that you're using but would fit the definition of 'nonverbal,' if you're using it to mean 'without words' and not just 'without speech.'

As to some more nuances:

'Nonverbal' is more common, but it can also be seen as more clinical.

'Nonverbal' can definitely be stigmatized, but again, the problem is the assumptions people make about people who don't speak.

'Nonspeaking,' when used to refer to people who use sign language, can lead to the idea that no one who uses signed languages can speak or that sign is somehow not on the same level as speech (which is wrong, as it’s just another way of communication). Again, the problem here isn't necessarily with the word, but with the assumptions people make about people's way of communicating.

Someone with unreliable speech who can only use echolalia and uses it a lit wouldn't really fit the term 'minimally speaking,' but they might fit the definition 'minimally verbal.' Does this help make sense as to why both terms can be useful?

Many autistic people, and/or intellectually disabled people (particularly less mild ID) do not see a difference between the two words. Their definitions are very similar. The nuance between the two can be really difficult to conceptualize if someone struggles with language in general, or even just with abstract concepts.

We can and should respect various forms of communication. This of course means voiced speech, AAC device speech, and signed languages. But it also means when people can't use any of those, and they use other things, like grunts or guiding people towards something or whatnot, that we have to accept these are also forms of communication that are entirely nonverbal, as in, unrelated to words.

Communities are diverse. People prefer different things for different reasons!

Language evolves, and these evolutions get to people at different times. Many people may not have ever heard the term 'nonspeaking' in their entire life, for example. You and I might have seen it often, but not everyone goes in the same in-person or online circles.

There's a lot of nuance and semantics involved, and a lot of people who would be involved in this, and be described as nonspeaking/nonverbal, are just not involved in this conversation. Whether that's because they don't want to or they can't (which are both valid reasons), they're just not putting their opinion out into the internet or books or whatever.

In the end, I am not saying "ignore saying nonspeaking completely" nor "ignore saying nonverbal completely." What I am saying is that neither is a perfect term, but this also means that neither is inherently offensive. What matters is how they are used, and how you refer to the people you are using them for.

Intent and respect are more important than semantics; this does not mean that semantics have no importance, but rather that they can be complex and not fully capture everything involved in a discussion.

Last but certainly not least, it's really important to respect the choice of any individual who asks you to use or not use a particular term.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

[cripplecharacters]

I have a character who is nonverbal, intellectually disabled, and uses an AAC device. I'm wondering how I would write down her inner thoughts and monologue? Would she think in full English sentences, in AAC symbols, or something else?

Hi asker,

I will start off by letting you know that there is no single definitive answer for this, but I still have thoughts and ideas.

So, as for the question of would she think in AAC symbols or English sentences, that really depends on your character. It could be either.

Some nonverbal people, but not all, don't think in words at all, but more in images or associations, so this could be the case of your character and might even be part of why they are nonverbal and need AAC. (Some people who aren't nonverbal also don't think in words either, but your character is, so that's what I'll focus on here!)

Your character could also think in words. They might think entirely in words, or partly. They might think in what you would think of as more 'standard' English sentences, or maybe more simplified sentences.

For example, it's common for people with ID to use simpler syntax and/or less abstract language. But language abilities are a wide range, and this can extend to AAC usage. Some people might use more complex sentences, while some might might only be able to use two words in a sentence. Some people might get the hang of pronouns, and some might not. Some people might get the hang of conjugating verbs, some might not. Some people speak more slowly or with more pauses. You have a lot of leeway in how to conceptualize your character's thoughts.

I want to add one thing: a lot of ways that people with ID people can speak are used to make fun of people. Slower speech, simple sentences, not conjugating some words, stuff like that. If you include this, you have to take care to make sure that the message you’re sending by including them is “some people just talk like this” and not “isn’t it so funny/weird/gross/weird that some people talk this way? Let’s make fun of it/focus on how weird and different (derogatory) it is”.

However, the limitations of a written medium is that at the end of the day you will in fact have to use words to write what is going on in her brain, even if she doesn't think in words.

So I would say: focus on figuring out how your character manages language, since there’s many different ways they can, and then once you decide that it might be easier to figure out exactly how to write them. Mod sasza has even more points below!

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

Hey, I'd consider how your character learned language. If her first exposure was a symbol-based AAC device, there's a higher chance she'd think in AAC symbols than if she first communicated via sign language or anything else that's not a symbol-based AAC device.

I'm fully verbal and actually mostly think in associations and other non-language ways like pictures (though when I'm imagining things like an actual conversation, I do use language). That's why for me and a lot of other people with ID (verbal or not) it can take longer to think of what to say; you need to translate your thoughts to language first.

With your character having much more severe language disability than me, I'd guess that she either used very simple sentence construction or that you'd have to describe her thoughts in a less direct manner (associations or visuals), which will be more time-consuming to write and more cryptic to readers (which makes it realistic, communication with people with significant language problems takes longer, if mind reading was real it would apply to it too).

You should definitely consider the things mentioned by Sparrow; whether she understands pronouns, conjugation, can she differentiate similar words correctly (e.g., love/like, handsome/pretty), etc.

Depending on her level of ID, she might think "I'm hungry" as anything between "Damn, I wish I was eating a burger right now" (complete English sentence) through "Yes food" (in which "yes" means positive rather than agreeing with someone) or "Images of her home kitchen flashed through her head" (simply associating kitchen with the feeling of hunger), to "Two symbols from her board; one meaning 'me' with the second showing an empty plate, went through her mind over and over". There is a big difference between a person with mild ID who might be unable to speak because they can't coordinate their mouth to make actual words but don't struggle with grammar at all, and a person with a profound ID whose entire AAC board is "yes" and "no" (or not even that, but I wanted an example to show what could be someone's existing-but-very-limited language ability).

Obviously some of these are more clunky, some are less so. But the way a lot of nonverbal ID people communicate isn't perfectly clear and direct, and there is a lot of variety in the manner that it shows.

I also wrote this post about speech in intellectual disability that you might find useful. I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[cripplecharacters]

I have a disabled character (neurodivergence) who is non verbal - which are the most common disabilities that cause people to be non verbal? Autism is the only one I can find and I already have quite a few autistic characters and want to add more diversity in different types of neurodivergence. Ty!

Hello asker!

So, here's a couple of reasons people might be nonverbal, and I am including physical disabilities as well as neurodivergence.

Developmental Apraxia of Speech, also known as Childhood Apraxia of Speech or Developmental Verbal Dyspraxia, is when from birth the person has trouble planning to move the body parts required to speak (so like, lips, tongue, jaw, etc). It can improve with speech therapy in some

Apraxia of speech is the more general category for the above. This can be acquired, especially from strokes or traumatic brain injuries (TBI).

Dysarthria, which when total is referred to as anarthria, is when there's a neurological injury to the physical muscles that are needed to speak (again, lips, tongue, jaw, etc). Problems with swallowing are common too, since this has to do with muscle weakness rather than motor planning like apraxia of speech. This isn't a physical injury to the muscles, but rather to the brain part that controls them. It can be caused by genetic conditions, traumatic conditions (like strokes or TBIs), cerebral palsy, and more.

This means that generally speaking, conditions like Cerebral Palsy, Traumatic Brain Injury, and strokes can potentially cause a person to be nonverbal, whether due to the above reasons or others.

Intellectual Disability, whether it co-ocurrs with autism or not, can also cause difficulty speaking or an inability to speak. Intellectual disability is a condition that generally causes difficulties with things like reasoning, learning, and problem solving as well as adaptive functioning, which are skills used to navigate life – social, language, communication, practical, etc.

This isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but generally they are not completely uncommon.

Here is another previous post we've answered, too!

Hope this helps!

– mod sparrow