I was non verbal until the age of 10. But even after that, words were still hard to retrieve and I still have a hard time producing words, as well as processing verbal information. My brain doesn’t retain verbal information but I do very well with visuals. I’m a hybrid mouth speaker who experiences verbal shutdowns and am unable to speak so I’m a part time AAC user. I think in pictures and it’s hard to translate that into words so I mainly use my art as a form of communication even if others don’t understand it. I still communicate using immediate and delayed echolalia because I’m a gestalt language processor. And while it may not be so obvious to others around me, because I have learned to produce original sentences with my scripts, I still find that it creates a barrier when I’m trying to communicate with other people who don’t understand my scripts. These are some of my communication deficits that I can’t mask and have no control over. I want people to know that just because I’m verbal now, that doesn’t mean I have zero communication deficits. I want people to know that just because I’m verbal, that doesn’t mean I don’t need AAC to communicate. I also want people to know that just because I’m verbal, that doesn’t mean I’m high functioning. And while I can speak and use my words, that doesn’t mean I’m always able to self advocate. I do believe there’s a lot of misinformation circling around on social media that may be contributing to the lack of knowledge about autism and the different levels of communication deficits. There’s not enough representation of the true deficits that many autistic people have so I can’t really blame people who don’t know it because they don’t have exposure to it. I just really wish more people understood.