Listeners might perceive autistic traits in our 'stutter behavior': * We (stutterers) might rehearse scripts for social scenarios. Not because we actually have autism, rather because we might feel more stutter pressure if we improvise (rather than saying a planned script, basically) * We might seem to show unnatural facial expressions and hand expressions. Not because we are born autistic, rather because the meaning of using non-verbal communication might increase the demand on the speech system which increases stuttering. Or, because spontaneous speech & spontaneous facial expressions (that non-stutterers use) don't fit correctly with our slow, unclear, stuttered speech production. Or, because of our negative experiences we now prioritize speech performance that is preferred by society (rather than how we actually want to express communication) * We might re-formulate the sentences in an inconvenient way. Not because we are born autistic, rather because we have developed an attitude to prioritize fluency over speaking effectively. For example, if we are telling a story of 10 sentences. Then we might prefer to start with words/phrases that are most important - after all, we realize from negative experiences that we might not be able to completely finish telling our story (I mean, listeners might interrupt us or leave the situation or become impatient). While non-stutterers formulate the story based on effective communication, such as plot convenience, or they say the story in chronological order that includes examples.. however, severe (or anxious) stutterers don't have the liberty to do that. Because they might not be able to finish the whole story due to stuttering, and other people interrupting/leaving (etc) * Another example is, that stutterers might re-formulate the phrases in such a way, that we put the "important meaning" at the end of the story, just so we can avoid stuttering. Because stutterers stutter more if they perceive it as important (such as, stuttering on our own name) Conclusion: So, I think this circumlocution-attitude that we have developed over many years, is very subconscious.. and you probably didn't even realize this until I explained it in this comment, right? And guess what, this is only one example, and there are 100s if not 1000s of other examples that obviously don't fit in this ridiciously long comment