Communication issues- finding the words

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I am trying to make sense of the way that I process people talking to me. I work in a supermarket and so several times a day I am asked a question by a stranger- and it is awful.

I feel like I need to work REALLY hard to understand what they are asking (although I can hear them fine). From the second I see someone coming towards me until they have finished speaking I try to work out what they will want based on what they look like, age, sex, etc. If i don't try to get as much info as I can I will just end up standing there with a long delay while I try to work out what they said, and try to get my words together. I can't work out if I have trouble understanding what they say or if I have trouble finding my words. I find my mind is IMMENSELY faster than my words.

Have you heard of CAPD?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_p ... g_disorder

Could be the very distracting environment you're in. Even if you can hear them.

This seems very likely to me. The more background noise or distractions are present, the more the person who is talking becomes part of them.

I'm not saying this is the only factor, but maybe part of the problem is in shifting focus from what you were doing onto the question? I can do quite well answering random questions if I'm doing nothing else but that. Trouble is, most employers strongly prefer their staff to field questions while they're working on something else, and that doesn't work for me.

Might be dysnomia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysnomia_%28disorder%29

Sounds familiar. I often find myself blurting out something ridiculous in order to give myself time to process what they said and to formulate an appropriate response.