I think if ur worried about ur communication style make sure to ask questions! And ask questions that u really want to know the answer to even if they seem little weird. If you do that. It's really natural then when u talk about ur experiences to relate... https://twitter.com/dearnonnatives/status/1391366592802398212

I just had the funniest convo with my friend! It was just us telling each other personal stories back and forth. And tbh it was a weird conversational structure for me bc im not used to it, but it felt like really natural bc I also tell personal stories A LOT!!

Here's conversation tips I learned to have better conversations if ur ND and need help this works for everyone btw:

1. If people talk fast its okay to interrupt. Probably they DONT like questions.
2. If people talk slow do NOT interrupt but probably it IS okay to ask questions

3. Regardless of speed of speech it is always okay to ask questions about the person like "what do you like to do? What is your favorite? How do you feel about that?" These are good and make ppl feel like u care about them. Bc you do! Duh!

4. Repeating things back is active listening. But! If you say mm hm a lot people might feel like ur rushing them.
Do not repeat back often! It's weird. Usually if you repeat something it has to be followed by a question.

5. You gotta face in the direction of the person ur talking too and look at them. This one is the hardest for mee!! If I really start thinking like a real discussion I can't look at someone!! Augh!! I just get as close to their face as possible lmao!!!

6. Telling personal stories is not usually okay for older people. But literally idk...I do this with all my friends and it's fine. BUT!!! if someone is upset!! Do NOT TELL THEM A STORY!!! DONT!!! Ask them what is wrong. What can u do to help. How do they feel?

7. Interrupting isn't natural for a lot of southern people or shy people or two people that are more formal like strangers or coworkers so watch out. Some people are just waiting for you to pause. So make sure you put...a pause. Like...1 second. Bc conversation goes fast.

8. Whenever u meet someone u will talk to a lot make sure to watch closely for their conversation style its either number one or number two basically. If someone isn't comfortable with questions you can say like "no judgements." "I'm really asking" "I don't know so I'm asking"

Questions can seem like ur being rude bc people think you are doubting them or secretly judging them like when ur mean aunt says "why are you going out dressed like that?" She means "I can't believe ur doing this. Change."

This is just general especially if u have to ask a lot...like...me. I have a lot of questions and like 90% of the time people are very upset with me. Lmaoo! So I stop asking but then they are upset bc I didn't ask. So...I just decide to have everyone be upset with me instead.

Bc I have to have everything told to me outloud like everyone is basically upset with me about something at some point. I learned a lot from living with my mom bc she doesn't have this squishy brain problem and likes to tell me everything.

She will be like upset and I will not understand at all and she will have to like tell me outloud or I don't understand and she is like ugh and I am like...how can I know what I don't know? I can't guess. Like for mothers day we did a lot of fun things and I did fun stuff

But she was upset bc I didn't get her the card! And I was like...I didn't know u cared about card? And she said you always get a card. And I was like okay well I didn't know that was the rule, you have to tell me bc it not easy for me to know when u r upset.

So now my brain is like

For holidays you always have to get a card.

But before I never thought about cards at all...they seemed random and useless...I never noticed who gave me one or when they gave it to me or anything like that...!

Communication is hard and it's not easy or natural for everyone....and thats okay! But for everyone involved. If you care about someone you will talk about this and you will accommodate them. That's true.