following directions/understand what others are telling u

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Hello, I was just kind of curious of who here has trouble following directions? Sorry this has probly been discussed before. This is one of the reasons I might have aspergers. I notice when someone is explaining something to me like for instance...I go over to my older sisters house and help her clean her house and help with her kids. Alot of times she will be telling me how to do something..like the one time she wanted to prepare a bottle for my nephew. She told me how much water and how much formula to put into the bottle and for some reason i say ok but then i always have to ask her again, "Now how much of this do i put in?" And then there are other times when im helpin with the laundry she will tell me something how she needed it done and i will look her in the face or sometimes not look her in the face and take everything in and say ok to all that she wanted me to do and how to do it. And then of course when the time came to do it I always say im sorry can you please explain it again what you wanted me to do..And sometimes when she does repeat herself I will zone out or not fully get what she said and start laughing at myself and saying, "Wait..what?" then she says it again really slow step by step..and then i say ok got it..and we both laugh at it..and she doesnt give me a hard time or nothin..she just says you need to pay attention while laughing..and its quite funny sometimes. But rather annoying which is one of the reasons why im scared to get a job.
Anyway does anyone else have a hard time with this? Or doesnt have a hard time with it?

Yep. Verbal instructions are often hard for those on the spectrum to take in and/or remember. Do you find you are better with written instructions, or diagrams?

Yes. I used to think I had a bad memory and would think I was stupid. It's better if things are just written down so I can remember.

Yes. I always thought I was just bad at paying attention, but if someone shows me or writes it down I've got it in an instant. Lab classes are the WORST.

When i get vague instructions, i have trouble. It needs to be very specific on what to do.

This is something I have trouble with unless it's really basic instruction. Other people seem to explain things in a really weird way. I can only understand things said in a way that I would say them. I sometimes have to write down what they say and then work it out in my own head in my own time before it makes sense. Pictorial instructions are far easier for me as well (providing the picture looks like what it's meant to be!). I get really stressed reading instructions for putting things together, and I'm soooo pedantic about checking off all the bits and ticking them on the instructions, laying them out in groups of fittings, and then having the instructions followed exactly as they are written. If I have to assemble something with another person, it becomes a stressful farce.

I won't let the instructor go, until I am 100% clear.

That is a lesson learned when I was younger. I would just nod and say "Okay, I've got it" when I hadn't.

I don't do that anymore.

As above, I've learnt that I forget things almost immediately after they've been instructed to me, and have to go over it like 3 times and then note it down and triple check, I won't let them go It still happens though.

I have trouble with step by step instructions. I am much better when someone provides a conceptual framework about how or why a process is done and lets me work out the specific method of accomplishing the task.

I can't follow a recipe without changing it. One of my aunts sent me a Spanish recipe for a chickpea and spinach stew and I set off to make it. What I ended up with was a lot closer to Indian cuisine than Spanish.

Being a fairly visual person, if I must follow step by step instructions, I seem to do better if they are heavily illustrated.

Maybe alied to this, I am remarkably bad at providing directions to get from one place to another. Almost without fail, I will leave out some critical turn and I suspect I have often sent people into scary parts of town because of this. Luckily I had my iPhone with me the last time someone asked for directions and I could show him where we were and what he needed to do to get to where he was going. But had I tried to describe it without visuals, he probably would have ended up in Nebraska.