"Cat Got Your Tongue?" - An Idiom for Autistic Communication Difficulties

Stephen McHugh
This post was last updated on
November 25, 2025

I'm sure we've heard the idiom, "Cat got your tongue?"

But from my past lived experiences with autism spectrum disorder, the experience it describes is real. This can be a moment where speech simply stalls. It's not because we don't know what to say, but because translating our thoughts into spoken words can sometimes be more difficult than we may realise.

In the video below, I explore how this idiom can capture this strange, frustrating freeze that can happen when our brains may get overwhelmed or overloaded with too much information.


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