<p>OP, I was diagnosed with APD my senior year in high school. I can hear fine, but often times when people are speaking to me and I’m not looking directly at them, I hear noise but I can’t understand it. In that situation I usually feign not paying attention, even when I am, and say something like, “Sorry, one more time?” It’s not as often but still very frustrating when I’m sitting in lecture and the professor is just talking with no power point or anything written on the board and I suddenly and randomly can’t understand them. And it’s embarrassing when I’m having a small group discussion or even a one-on-one conversation, but usually then I’m close enough to lip-read.
Some people say they have photographic memories, but I’ve always thought my memory was a bit like a record player, but one that only played back the patterns of speech sans words. I can’t think of how to explain it besides maybe a drum beat that goes along with how people say things, with the stresses and inflections.</p>
<p>If that sounds at all like you then yeah, I’d go see an audiologist or someone about APD. And as a little side note, I’ve always preferred classical or even techno music because it doesn’t have any words and I can’t misunderstand it. :P</p>
<p>If they’re more than a few feet away and I can’t hear them, I tell them to hold on a second while I fish my glasses out of my purse. Then I ask them to repeat, so I can read their lips. It’s silly, I know. But it’s better than going “WHAT?” five times in a row.</p>
<p>Just to give you a bit more free advice (worth what you paid) there are six basic types of issues that make it hard to understand speech. If you understand these, you can sometimes identify which one is causing you trouble - often two - and control for them.<br>
- Too much noise, or distracting noise…in which case you could say "I am sorry - let me close the door/go inside/etc so that I can hear you better. Control for this by sitting away from windows, doors, fans, heaters, distracting peers, and in the center of a table in a discussion.<br>
2 - Unfamiliar vocabulary or sentence structure…“Can you explain what arachnid means?” or “Can I repeat what you said so I know I am clear?”
3 - Too fast or too much at once … “Let me go over the steps of that…” or “Can you show me what you mean” or “Can we go through it together” or repeat what portions you understook and let them fill in the rest
4 - Unreasonable (e.g. the person asks you to sign a form, but gives you a page with no signature block)… repeat back what they said - they will often hear it and correct themselves,<br>
6 - Unknown information (e.g. they give you directions to make a right on Maple, but you don’t know where Maple is) … Again, if you can identify what part is unknown to you, it is easier for the person to correct.</p>
<p>In essence, the more of an active listener you can be, the better people will respond to repeating or reexplaining themselves. For a lot of people, after words come out of their mouth, they don’t necessarily remember what they said. Therefore, if you just say “Huh” or a more vague comment, it puts a big load on THEIR memory, and is more likely to annoy them. That said, even more annoying is pretending you understood, and then being perceived as ignoring them. </p>
<p>Language is complicated!!</p>