I recently listened to a podcast where a well-intentioned person insisted that humans have largely forgotten their innate emotional intelligence and that only 7% of information is communicated through words. The other 93% is communicated in non-verbal ways and if people would simply pay attention to body language and facial expression, they would be able to communicate so much better with others and decrease a lot of conflict.
Absolutely! I often ask people to "Listen to my words to find out what I mean, please." I also find others are sometimes offended when I listen to THEIR words and take them literally. I take a lot of care to select the words that I believe most clearly express what I want to get across, and then have others completely ignore those words and tell me that I don't even know my own feelings.
As for body language, I think autists are not necessarily blind to those cues but that we interpret them differently -- and that NTs interpret OUR body language differently from how we mean them.
Absolutely! I often ask people to "Listen to my words to find out what I mean, please." I also find others are sometimes offended when I listen to THEIR words and take them literally. I take a lot of care to select the words that I believe most clearly express what I want to get across, and then have others completely ignore those words and tell me that I don't even know my own feelings.
As for body language, I think autists are not necessarily blind to those cues but that we interpret them differently -- and that NTs interpret OUR body language differently from how we mean them.