Ask HN: How do you handle language disorders/communication problems?
Expressive Language Disorder and Speech Disorders make it really difficult to articulate your thoughts and communicate well. It's really time consuming as well.
ADHD, Autism, Schizophrenia, Aphasia cause communication difficulties as well.
Ask HN: How do you improve your writing? (Saw this trending and it inspired me to post this)
I have ADHD and in my old age Aphasia. Here is an editing strategy that lets me write with clarity and precision. The key is to relax and write down my initial thoughts even though I know they are poorly expressed, incomplete, and even faulty. This frees me from the worries and inhibitions that interfere with moving forward. I just do it.
After completing the previous paragraph, I have then reviewed and re-written it about 10 times.
I find this approach very satisfying as my own understanding improves as well as my writing. After writing these last two sentences, I have again reviewed and re-written the entire piece multiple times.
After writing longer pieces I go back over the piece moving paragraphs, adding new ones, deleting old ones, dividing paragraphs, and launching editing cycles for others.
As I proceed, I have confidence that I am entirely in control and will go back and fix any remaining issues. Again the key is to ease back, relax, and just let it evolve.
P.S. I want to emphasize how worthwhile are the new insights into the topic that come from cycles of editing cycles.
Are you able to do this really fast? I took a really long time to write this post. ( More than half an hour) I'm kind of doing the same thing even with instant messaging. I write long paragraphs everywhere. AI tools help with rephrasing and reducing wordiness but when it comes to one on one communication, it's really difficult to rapidly iterate and maintain the conversation. This causes stuttering? I have ADHD too and expressive language difficulties.
Fast? Not at all I'm afraid. Frequently, I can barely talk. I gave up on talking to people except as necessary over 70 years ago. I much prefer email.
Writing well is a slow process for everyone. It's a process of seeking out exactly what it is that I want to communicate (that is often not obvious) and refining my own understanding (which is often insufficient). It is a learning process as much as a communication one. It's worth the time.
Good luck!
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If normal communication does not come naturally to you, it's difficult to convince people as well as there is a greater tendency of misunderstanding and lack of trust.
It will appear as if you don't know what you are saying or you are making things up. Also, you will have people saying this:
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough."
Nobody's going to wait for you to finish your sentences either. They assume something and react.
Such reductionist statements might be valid for most cases but if you are at the receiving end due to communication/articulation problems, it's really difficult to convince people.
There are other problems that come up.
It takes me a lot more iterations to get things right. I'm curious if someone has figured out communication for people with language disorders.
> If normal communication does not come naturally to you, it's difficult to convince people as well as there is a greater tendency of misunderstanding and lack of trust.
OTOH, in the age of eloquent writing by genAI a total BS can be expressed in a very convincing language.