post auTimsm diagnosis conversation
Jason: [makes that noise you do when you get an itch in your throat area and you're trying to scratch it with sound vibrations or something]
Tim: [copies the noise]
Tim: [realizes] I--sorry, that w--
Jason, in the midst of a bad day: Are you mocking me--?
Dick: [gasp]
Dick: NO IT WAS UH [snapping as he tries to remember] UH, UH ECHALALIA
Tim: EchOlalia. [clears his throat] Sorry, Jason.
Dick: No no no it's--... it can be involuntary right?
Tim: .. Yeah.
Dick: Did you do it involuntarily just then?
Tim: ... I guess. I--I could've stopped it though. Why are we talking about this? It's not a big deal and I said I was sorry.
Dick: No, it's important because if you didn't mean to, then you couldn't have meant any harm. And even if you meant to echo it, that doesn't mean you were mocking him; you could still have been just echoing him.
Dick: [takes out his phone]
Jason: Oh, great, research. That's fantastic and will take no time at all.
Dick: It could be self-stimulatory behavior, AKA stimming--
Tim: [embarrassed noises of internalized ableism]
Dick: Prefab--or it could be prefabrication, where it's too difficult or stressful for the speaker to form their own original words.
Jason: Wait, he's done that one before I think.
Tim: I have?
Jason: Yeah
Dick: OR self-talk, where you memorize phrases you hear so that you can talk yourself through a difficult process
Dick: So it could be any of those or maybe for another reason too, so it's not a bad thing. And now Jason knows that you're not mocking him
Tim, to Jason: if I do mock you I'll be sure to make it extra obvious from now on
Jason: Gee, thanks.
Tim: GeE thAnKS
Bruce: [proud tear from where he's been lurking in the corner taking mental notes]
