**Problem:** * However, I think it's very difficult to check whether stuttering behavior are due to having autism. * Example: * a person who diagnoses a stutterer for autism, might find that we have difficulty distinguishing details from the bigger picture. * Why do stutterers focus on details rather than the bigger picture? Why do they seem to not be able to follow the main storyline in a conversation? * Is it really because they have autism? * Or, are there other aspects in covert stuttering that we are missing? For example: * Perhaps we were simply using avoidance-techniques and completely changed the sentence structure in an inconvenient way - due to our stuttering (and not due to having autism) * Perhaps were so focused on repetitive negative thinking, social anxiety, the feared word/situation, or on scanning for threat or focused on the avoidance-mechanism in stuttering, or monitoring-response mechanism in stuttering * And then, this excessive reactivity then led us to perceiving too many stimuli, and thus, perceiving more errors than normal - which then results in impairing cognitive abilities and working memory * And perhaps this was the reason that we showed difficulty with maintaining the core storyline in the conversation (during the diagnostic autism test) * And then, this could impair cognitive flexibility: flexible switching from one perspective, representation, or rule to another e.g., switching gears or approaches when something is not working, changing their thinking when new information comes along to challenge their current perspective, and shifting from one topic to another in conversation * And, we know from research studies that cognitive flexibility/shifting is required for fluent speech production: (1) managing errors/disfluencies by adjusting their response, and continuing speaking without losing focus, (2) improvised speech: adjusting to these spontaneous changes without hesitation or speech interruptions, (3) managing cognitive conflict caused by triggers (this includes the avoidance-approach conflict that triggers stuttering), (4) adapting to negative listener reactions, and (5) reduced ability to switch focus from stuttering In combination with negative experiences, negative evaluation, social anxiety, low-esteem, low confidence (etc). All this can then lead to: * signifying subjective/emotional evaluation of making an error * reflecting an increase in negative reactivity, lower positive reactivity, and lower self-regulation * reflecting distinct physiological patterns in emotion reactivity and social anxiety * affecting stimulus evaluation, and response selection and inhibition * increasing a higher number of false alarms, tradeoff between speech accuracy and task performance, being prone to more negative emotional reactions to their own stuttering There are 100s of research studies that discuss this exact topic, regarding stuttering and impaired executive functions, see: [https://www.google.com/search?q=%22stuttering%22+%22executive+functions%22](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22stuttering%22+%22executive+functions%22) **TL;DR Summary:** In summary, at a superficial glance, others might perceive some autistic traits in people who stutter. However, in my opinion, it's difficult to determine whether these traits are due to the stuttering mechanism (and its consequences, like anxiety, scanning for threats and circumlocution/substitution of words/phrases) - which overload our working memory and cognitive abilities - or if they are actually indicative of autism