The inner speech and visualization in verbal autism questionnaire: A study and preliminary validation

We present the design and preliminary validation of a new scale for the study of inner speech and visualization in verbal autism, the Inner Speech and Visualization in Verbal Autism Questionnaire (ISVAQ). The questionnaire contributes to the study of inner speech, visualization and private speech from a first-person approach. We ran a study with 79 autistic and 81 neurotypical participants, and the results of the study showed that there was no significant difference in the (reported) uses of inner speech in autistic people compared to controls, although there was a weak though significant difference in higher visualization scores. Results also showed a significant difference in higher scores in private speech in the autistic population, as well as greater levels of dialogic inner speech in autistic women. We discuss these results in relation to existing empirical and theoretical research.