Is it me or are many people auditory-challenged?

Page 1 of 2 [ 18 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Alla
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 1 Dec 2008
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 350
Location: Cork, Ireland

10 Dec 2010, 6:28 am

I keep having to repeat myself to some people, especially men. I wonder if it they have hearing difficulties, some sort of auditory processing disorder, or are just not listening to every word I am saying. It drives me nuts when I have to keep repeating myself all the time.



leejosepho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 14 Sep 2009
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,011
Location: 200 miles south of Little Rock

10 Dec 2010, 7:19 am

Do you have their attention prior to speaking? My wife has a tendency to say things intended for me without first checking to see whether there is even a possibility I might actually be able to hear her and that I might be listening.


_________________
I began looking for someone like me when I was five ...
My search ended at 59 ... right here on WrongPlanet.
==================================


Aimless
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 1 Apr 2009
Age: 66
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,187

10 Dec 2010, 7:33 am

You may not be projecting your voice and they really can't hear you well enough to understand what you say. I got a lot of grief about speaking too low well into my 30's and after meds my social anxiety lessened and I was able to speak loud enough for people to hear me.



gingerpig
Tufted Titmouse
Tufted Titmouse

User avatar

Joined: 5 Dec 2010
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 25

10 Dec 2010, 8:28 am

I'm not good at voice projection either, and I also think certain voices can be harder to hear depending on the background noise, and the listener's ears, plus who they themselves are used to listening too.



theexternvoid
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 10 Nov 2010
Age: 74
Gender: Male
Posts: 208

10 Dec 2010, 8:40 am

I second that regarding voice projection. What country are you from, and did you move to a new one?

On the job, I've noticed this is very common with Indian and Chinese immigrants, especially women. Though some of the Americans are the same way, just less common for them. So my guess is that voice volume level is a cultural thing that varies from country to country. When in a conference room meeting, some people can't be heard because they speak so softly. Even on the phone for a conference call, there are certain people we have to regularly ask to speak louder, and you'd think that a phone would help but they are so soft that it doesn't always help.

The quiet voice is a huge deal for being understood. To draw a contrast, an American with a quiet voice is more difficult for me to understand in such meetings than someone with a thick foreign accent or broken English but speaks loudly. The soft-talkers I know are all obviously NT folks, so I don't think it's an aspie trait.



ruveyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Sep 2008
Age: 87
Gender: Male
Posts: 31,502
Location: New Jersey

10 Dec 2010, 1:12 pm

Alla wrote:
I keep having to repeat myself to some people, especially men. I wonder if it they have hearing difficulties, some sort of auditory processing disorder, or are just not listening to every word I am saying. It drives me nuts when I have to keep repeating myself all the time.


Have you had your hearing properly tested.

I have, and I have lost over half my aural acuity in the main frequency range for speech, which is between 250 Hz and 3,500 Hz

ruveyn



League_Girl
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Feb 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 27,205
Location: Pacific Northwest

10 Dec 2010, 1:22 pm

When my mind is focused on something and someone all of a sudden talks to me, I don't process their words because my mind didn't get the chance to listen because I was onto something else. So I have to go "what?" so they repeat themselves and I have my mind focused on their words.

This doesn't mean I am hard of hearing or having a processing disorder, you just started talking to me and I wasn't expecting it so my mind didn't get the chance to focus and process the words. I think this happens to lot of people as well. Try and get their attention first before speaking so they have their mind focused on you.


_________________
Son: Diagnosed w/anxiety and ADHD. Also academic delayed.

Daughter: NT, no diagnoses.


AceOfSpades
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,754
Location: Sean Penn, Cambodia

10 Dec 2010, 1:57 pm

This is pretty vague. There's so many possibilities...

Are you projecting your voice?
Do you mumble and not pronounce your consonants right?
If there's too much noise in the background, are your facial expressions and body language getting in the way of you being understood?
Could it be because since AS makes you more sensitive to stimulation, you notice the littlest details that others don't?



DandelionFireworks
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 May 2010
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,011

10 Dec 2010, 2:13 pm

I know! They never hear me! And they scream all the time!!

This seems to have developed since the recent exacerbation of my auditory hypersensitivity. What an odd coincidence.


_________________
I'm using a non-verbal right now. I wish you could see it. --dyingofpoetry

NOT A DOCTOR


friedmacguffins
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,539

10 Dec 2010, 5:00 pm

I am told that people can still hear, even when they're not looking at me, but they never answer.

I am often unable to speak when they are paying attention to me.

I'm never consciously intimidated and am sometimes articulate.

I have had my own auditory challenges, was sent to speech class, but can hear things noone else hears, when I am concentrating.



Who_Am_I
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 Aug 2005
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,632
Location: Australia

10 Dec 2010, 5:29 pm

I have the same problem.

If these people have trouble understanding most people, then it's probably them with the problem.

If these people have no trouble understanding most people but a lot of trouble with understanding you, it's probably you with the problem.


_________________
Music Theory 101: Cadences.
Authentic cadence: V-I
Plagal cadence: IV-I
Deceptive cadence: V- ANYTHING BUT I ! !! !
Beethoven cadence: V-I-V-I-V-V-V-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I
-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I! I! I! I I I


Jordan87
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 24 Jun 2010
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 127

10 Dec 2010, 10:53 pm

Quite the opposite. I find that I shock even myself from time to time with how perceptive I am from an auditory perspective. For example, I'll sometimes very faintly hear one of our dogs bark at the door to come back inside (Most often it is the German shepherd, Jack, who is quieter when "asking".), and will then go downstairs/ask somebody closer to let it in, and lo and behold, it does. That said, my ears sometimes fail me. For example, I'll hear something faint upstairs and will mistake it for my name, ask if I was called and get told "no". I've also had some minor hallucinations that are like what I've just described (Only those weren't hallucinations, per se.), except I'm much closer to the perceived source of the stimuli and so I know that if nothing was said to me at all, there's very little chance I misinterpreted something that was said.

Edit: Dove in and posted without reading the other posts after misreading the thread title. Would have got the gist of it had I not been so trigger happy, so my mistake. That said, I don't find that many people have a hard time understanding me. If they do, it's less because of their hearing problems and more because I stutter or tend to sometimes go off on tangents with people I am comfortable with. Oh, and I also have a tendency to talk fast, like Pensieve noted.



Last edited by Jordan87 on 11 Dec 2010, 2:45 pm, edited 3 times in total.

auntblabby
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,605
Location: the island of defective toy santas

10 Dec 2010, 11:25 pm

verbal instructions are a total waste with me. i need it written down. in detail.



pensieve
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 18 Nov 2008
Age: 38
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,204
Location: Sydney, Australia

11 Dec 2010, 5:26 am

I find I have to repeat myself a lot. I may talk too fast and I have a tongue tie and actual problems getting words out of my mouth. I don't always hear people too because 1) I have tinnitus in one ear (pretty sure I had APD before that), 2) I'm hella distracted by stimuli and my own thoughts, 3) I care very little about what people are saying.


_________________
My band photography blog - http://lostthroughthelens.wordpress.com/
My personal blog - http://helptheywantmetosocialise.wordpress.com/


Jellybean
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Apr 2007
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,795
Location: Bedford UK

11 Dec 2010, 8:11 am

I think it's partly because so many people are blasting their ears out using MP3 players these days!


_________________
I have HFA, ADHD, OCD & Tourette syndrome. I love animals, especially my bunnies and hamster. I skate in a roller derby team (but I'll try not to bite ;) )


KenG
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Mar 2006
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,122
Location: Israel

12 Dec 2010, 6:25 am

Alla wrote:
I keep having to repeat myself to some people, especially men. I wonder if it they have hearing difficulties, some sort of auditory processing disorder, or are just not listening to every word I am saying. It drives me nuts when I have to keep repeating myself all the time.
Sadly, most people are auditory-challenged indeed. I have stopped speaking to most people years ago, because it is impossible to make them hear me.

I sometimes feel as though I am the only person on Earth who can hear the myriad of subtle sounds which surround us.


_________________
AUsome Conference -- Autistic-run conference in Ireland
https://konfidentkidz.ie/seo/autism-tra ... onference/
AUTSCAPE -- Autistic-run conference and retreat in the UK
http://www.autscape.org/