do you have trouble understanding written and verbal things

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i've alwayed had a hard time in school and keeping a job because i have a hard time understanding written and verbal instructions. so far i've never quite found exactly what it is in my mind that causes this struggle but i know it's there. when someone tells me to do something, often even something simple even, i often don't understand what they mean and have to ask the to repeat it in another way. it's frustrating not only with me but with the person telling me the thing they want. often i will assume i understand something and realized i missed a lot of important bits and don't get the thing done properly and feel really upset, shameful, and hopeless after. i also have the same problem when reading something too. it's very tough at school because often when i read something in a book for homework i always get stuck and need to ask questions for clarification. during school lectures i rarely ever understand what is being said. it takes me very long to get homework done and i get exhausted and often have to take breaks frequently often every five to ten minutes. im guessing i have an impairment in the ability to "make inferences". i've lost many jobs and had to drop many classes because of this problem is it often upsets me and makes me scaired being that i want to at least keep a job and make a living. does anyone else have this problem? what part of my brain could be causing this impairment?

Yes! Not diagnosed here but I've been wanting to post a topic on this exact same thing. It's definitely caused a lot of grief at my last two jobs...I'd be given a task from my boss and I'd go off to do it only to realize I really didn't understand what he meant, so I'd have to come back and ask to clarify things and this would happen over and over, pretty much everyday until I was positive I was going to be fired (ended up leaving for school, phew). Also frustrated the heck out of my parents as a kid. As far as causes are concerned, no idea there just poor 'inference' skills as you stated, I guess.

Can I ask, are you having trouble with inferred meaning, or is it that the words mean nothing when you see/hear them? I find verbal, but especially written communication difficult because it all is just strings of individual words to me. Joining the words together to find meaning is very exhausting. Like you, it takes me an extremely long time to take in information, needing many many breaks. I agree it is unbelievably frustrating and effects my ability to work and study. Just the other day it took me 45minutes to read 2 pages of my textbook. It was not by any means a complicated topic but I still don't actually know what I read. No one can see the lengths that I am going to to stay in my uni course, they only care if my mark is ok.

written is fine. i've always been very literate because i loved the harry potter books as a kid and read those countless times. it was how i passed time instead of having friends - i'd watch TV, play Console games or read.

but yeah, verbal instructions i find very difficulty, especially when they don't provide details. i often have to ask again - most people that know me that now this means to include those details.

Again, im not officially diagnosed, but diagnosed by a small group of people.

I have problems in verbal and written language, but the problems differenciate from each other.
In verbal language I have a problem with the synchronisation of the present moment reacting in synchronisation to the verbal demands in any form, which lessens when the topic is a special interest in which I can react more synchron to the moment of time with the other speaker.
In written language I have improved over the years as in childhood I hardly could get any coherence from a text demanded, which is up to presence, but I learned how to get a coherent understanding in a text, but again as in verbal language if it is a text about a special interest, otherwise I am lost and my mind cannot get any coherent meaning out of the letters in a text.

im great with written instructions as anything I read gets burned into my mind. its verbal stuff, in one ear and right out the other.

I do fairly well with reading text, except when more tired than usual. I tend to need to refer back to it a lot then, because my short term memory suffers when I am more tired.

I am not good with verbal input, as I absorb visual input, including text much better than auditory input. I think it's at least partly because I can't mentally process sound as fast as other people do. It's possible that I may also not process it as clearly as others do.

I can be thrown off easily based on word choice and am often asking for more specifics. I have had many bosses where I work at the moment (there seems to be a lot of turnover.. even for management) and luckily most of the managers I have had have made some sort of exception for me where I call whenever I have questions.. I often call for what might seem like silly questions but if I didn't ask I would be stuck. I think I probably drive management a little crazy but once we are clear on what needs to be done it gets done and I'm thorough with my work.
I had a hard time in school with this where the wording of a question would make me unable to answer.
A recent example.. In counselling I was provided with a chart to record thoughts, identify moods, automatic thoughts, and "hot thoughts"(thoughts that are strongly associated with negative emotions). The chart had a column to list evidence that supports the hot thought and another column titled "Evidence that does not support the hot thought". I kept getting stuck on thinking.. well.. I could go on and on listing evidence that does not support the hot thought.. because anything irrelevant would not really support the hot thought.. after 2 sessions (2 weeks apart) and all of the evidence against left blank I figured out I can answer it if and only if I cross the title out and replace it with "Evidence that counters the hot thought".. aha.. now it makes sense...

I can't handle most verbal instructions, unless it's just one or two tasks at a time. Too many details thrown my way and my head implodes. What do neurotypicals think to handle verbal orders I wonder, are they getting immediate mental pictures in their heads when these directions are being thrown their way, mapping out the procedere in their heads as they hear the instructions?
Written instructions aren't so bad for me to handle, unless something about the language throws me off. I prefer to figure things out on my own, but I get impatient as all get out either way!

Verbal, very difficult. I have to write something down or ask for it to be written down, or it's no use at all.

Written, I can understand but can't remember something just from reading it. At least with written instructions I can keep checking back when I forget.

For optimal understanding and retention I need to write something down or, even better, make a chart or diagram of it.