About hearing but not understanding.

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I have the same problem as well. But alway thought it was because of my ADD, however, sometimes no matter how much I concentrate on the speaker or ask the speaker to repeat, I still sometimes leave not understanding what the speaker said. And even worst, I hate when I don't realize I've missunderstood something.

I've had these issues. I will be in a conversation, and listening to the person, and it'll be fine, but then all of a sudden what the person says will make no sense, and when I repeat it back the other person is like, WTF? I've had this with my dad as well, and he scolds me for it, saying if I had been paying attention to the context--and I had been paying attention to the conversation!--then I wouldn't have come back with such a wild interpretation.

I've noticed I also have delayed processing at times, where it's almost like the phonemes the other person says get stored in a buffer in short-term memory for processing after a few seconds; I will then repeat to myself exactly what was said and process the semantic meaning immediately from that.

Both issues transfer to Japanese, my second language I began learning as an adult. At first I blamed it on its being a second language, but I've noticed that I have both issues, with roughly the same patterns and outcomes (e.g. there are times when listening to someone speak Japanese, that, again, the phonemes seem to get put in a buffer and then when I repeat it to myself, I understand its semantic meaning immediately). I will probably never overcome these issues in either language, because I've had this issue in English, my native language, as an adult.

This is a speech processing issue for me. I can only understand what people are saying for five or ten minutes of a meeting or lecture. I can hear the words, but I can't understand what people are saying. It's like speech is normally made of a block structure that makes sense, but after hearing too much speech, the block structure gets too big and falls apart, and the blocks get scrambled on the floor, and it takes a huge amount of effort to assemble a sentence.

It helps if I do a repetitive activity, like playing Bejeweled Blitz on my iPad, while I am listening to people speaking. Also, focusing on something held close to my eyes seems to help too.

This might not be the same thing but I've got two examples:

One is when I'm preoccupied with something, I don't always listen to what others are saying. Usually, I can figure out what's going on but I've been caught a few times.

The other thing almost seems neurological but sometimes a person will be talking to me and I can't make out what they're saying. I know it's English but I can't make out the words. Usually, the speaker is a high pitched female or has a heavy accent. It's bothersome because I'm used to having a fine ear. I have good pitch memory and am the go-to person in my family for translating for folks who have had a stroke.

For awhile I though it was getting worse with age but then I realized I just noticed it more as the incidents piled up over time. I didn't even realize it was happening for a long time because I just blew it off.

I think I have experienced something like this before too. I sometimes will hear the words, but don't understand what is being said, when I should understand. The only way I can explain it is what they say just sounds like sounds, not words, even though they are speaking properly. And then I get confused and feel stupid because I can't understand when I should.

This happens to me as well.

Also quite often when someone says something I think that I didn't hear them so I say 'what' but straight after I've said what I remember what they said, but it's too late anyway because they start repeating themselves. It's like my brain has delayed processing.

This! Exactly this.

Yep, this happens a lot when I'm in a public place, like college, for instance. I'll have to have people repeat the same thing over and over until it finally registers. It's almost like I can hear the words, but they're jumbled together and I can't make a sentence out of them. This still happens when I am giving them my full attention. I'm not sure exactly why it does, but it does.

Yep. This.

Yes. If I am having a one on one convo I am ok. But the more people you add, the less I understand. Get up to more than 3 and I'm out, the convo becomes "illegible" to me UNLESS it's a topic of interest. Like if they are talking about evolution or biology? I'm on it to the point that everyone else will leave the table. The worst is when there are multiple conversations going on and overlapping. Forget it. I'll retreat to a corner or sit and drink a beer or whatever. They might as well be speaking french.

Yep. For me, I think it's a sensory issue. In more hectic or crowded social environments, I have a hard time concentrating since I'm thinking intellectually about what most people know instinctively (body language, intentions, etc) and I'm not good at selective hearing. The voice of the person talking to me is just as noticed as the random person talking to someone in my vicinity.

You know, sometimes my delay causes me to express comprehension in some vague manner before having to ask, "What?" So, my asking probably makes no sense to someone who doesn't know what's going on with me.

Yes, I have this problem. I have to actually concentrate to hear people speak to me. I have to process it. I have the same problem with listening to music, reading and watching television.

I have it so bad I went on relentless searching about it. I came up with CAPD - Central Auditory Processing Disorder and also SPD - Sensory Processing Disorder. I think some have mentioned it in previous posts.

It was an exciting discovery.

I am still learning just how much I don't understand and "mishear" or "mistranslate" in day to day life. It has become quite shocking...

So many things can cause this. I think one that hasn't been mentioned yet is if the person says something you don't fully understand you can be too busy trying to figure out the meaning of what they said meanwhile they're still talking and you're not paying attention to them and no longer know what they're saying. The same goes for reading, if I'm not 100% certain of the meaning of something when I'm reading I stop and look it up. Another can be being tired.

Last edited by Washi on 16 Jun 2012, 3:31 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yes and what I initially think I hear is usually something crazy, it's a constant source of amusement for me and I'm often compelled to tell the other person what I thought I heard.