Okay...so I'm writing about autism since I'm giving a talk in like five days and I got to thinking about thought.
I have 2,250 words typed already but this whole thing has me stumped.

I want to know what shape a thought is.
Because how can I know if I think in pictures if I don't know what everyone else thinks in?
Because I thought you guys thought in like typed words and then I thought in my way "then how would you have thoughts before written language?"
So I asked my mom what form her thoughts take place as and she said it was just a streaming voice and then my brain went "whoa, what the hell?"

Are thoughts a streaming voice?
If thoughts are just a streaming voice then what is a thought before you know language?
What is a thought like if you don't know what words are, if you've been confined to silence?
Do you need language to have thoughts?
Before the language was it pictures?

I just need a definition or like an image. I know this might be really confusing but I'm confused about the way a "normal" brain has a thought. What the heck does it "look" like so to say?

Note: this sound theoretical but it isn't. I just want to know what a thought is like um...jeebus, physically in your brain. Is is just a voice?