this causes problems for me sometimes on a daily basis, unfortunately, though since i realized what the problem was, i’ve been able to get a subjective understanding of it. also, getting older and learning more and more how to respect who i am, rather than being lost in the confusing malestrom of identities other people say i’m supposed to have… many people are good people, but still, on a societal level, there’s an unspoken pressure to be a certain way that, if you’re on the fringe, becomes apparent in quite a vexing way.
here is what wikipedia has to say about auditory processing disorder. the basic behavioral manifestations:
1. Difficulty understanding what people are saying when there’s background noise, such as noise at a party
2. Difficulty comprehending more than one piece of information at a time or following long monologues
3. Difficulty hearing or understanding conversations on the telephone
4. Preferring to learn a foreign language (or challenging vocabulary words, or difficult last names) by learning to read and write the words first, and then learning to hear and speak the words, and then only when the words are spoken slowly
5. Difficulty remembering spoken information (i.e., auditory memory deficits)
6. Difficulty taking notes
7. Difficulty maintaining focus on an activity if other sounds are present; person is easily distracted by other sounds in the environment
8. Difficulty with organizational skills
9. Difficulty following multi-step directions
10. Difficulty in dividing attention
11. Difficulty with reading and/or spelling/dyslexia
12. Preferring to watch movies with the subtitles or closed-captioning on/Preferring to either read subtitles with no voice-over or vice versa, but not able to cope with both subtitles and voice simultaneously
13. Sensitivity to certain sounds, particularly sudden or high frequency sounds: a condition called “Hyperacusis” and/or inability to separate sounds (e.g., inability to “tune out” a television on in the background while “tuning in” a conversation with a person), referred to by psychologists as the inability to process “The Cocktail Effect”
14. Difficulty picking out one musical instrument from a band or orchestra
this is one of the first sites i came across when researching this, it’s very helpful, written from a first person perspective:
CAPD causes incoming speech to sound distorted sometimes. This can range from people sounding as if they are “talking backwards”, to more simple things like confusion over letters, blurring together of sounds, or things otherwise “sounding wrong”. Sometimes things sound like a foreign language or “gibberish”.
Sometimes, with my hyperacuity to sound, sound distorts in much the same way that will happen if you take a cheap speaker, attach it to a stereo system or something of the like, and turn the volume up very high. This will cause a “flattening” of the sound, an inability to discriminate the words, and a general lack of tonal complexity.
This can make comprehension, depending on the sort of distortion, either difficult, spotty, or impossible.
this is also another good article, written in understandable language, about what it’s like to actually have apd:
The easiest, quickest way to communicate is simply to say something and then deal with the other person’s reply, right? Except that if your listener has a CAPD (Central Auditory Processing Disorder) you remark might come through with certain words drowned out by other noises, or with some words sounding like different words or as meaningless strings of verbiage. You might begin to suspect this when the other person’s expression doesn’t register understanding, or if he “answers the wrong question,” or when he asks you for additional information which most people would have been able to infer from what you just said.
the above-mentioned wikipedia article mentions workarounds, tactics people with auditory processing disorder can use to help them function more effectively:
1. Ask people to speak slowly, especially on the telephone.
2. If someone is giving you several pieces of information together, repeat each one aloud as you hear it. This allows the brain the necessary time to assimilate the last message before receiving a new one.
3. Get directions and instructions in writing.
4. When given a unit of information e.g. a number, immediately form a mental picture of it. Visual messages are much easier for APD sufferers to store in memory.
5. Do not take notes yourself when information comes from others orally, as this may interfere with your processing strategies, but ask others to provide notes for you.
6. Many APDs use body language, lip reading and eye contact as a coping strategy.
7. Rewrite text using multi-coloured text options to provide visual guide to changes in meaning or for new sentences, or use a set of coloured highlighters.
8. Use closed captioning while watching television.
9. Place with teachers whose speaking style is clear and organized, who are “good explainers,” and who encourage questions, so that the person with APD does not have to decode complex verbiage. Rules of language activities, including writing, need to be made overt and very explicit.
i still get the weird looks from people, them assuming i’m completely stupid, which could be easy to understand given the distant/deer caught in headlights look my face typically has (which is frustrating, given how intelligent i am inside; if i type rather than speak, i come across as extremely competent). but since i became aware of what was ‘wrong’ with me, i started using the above tactics, and others. this article from “andrea’s buzzing about”, a good site, mentions her experience of what it’s like to have apd, and workarounds she’s devised.
i’ve found one thing that’s very helpful is to take control of conversation flow; meaning, i don’t let the person talking to me dictate how they’re going to get the info to me, cuz they usually do in a very confusing, disorganized rush. instead i structure the conversation, ask timed, specific questions. i only work at jobs that allow me to wear headphones while i work. my ipod is my salvation, because it allows me to escape what would otherwise be a chaotic, confusing, noisy world. i tend to like to hang out with intelligent people who speak in complete sentences, with an easy to negotiate logical structure. when i have to go to go to any place noisey or crowded, you’ll always find me in the far corner, with the most distance around me, where i can have the most objective view. when being given instructions, i write things down immediately, and ask the person to wait while i write each step down. when needing to organize something in my head, i do so visually, and work best when given a large space to work (either virtual or physical) where i can arrange the information, visually, into modular blocks that can be easily arranged and managed.
however, there’s much of the world i miss out on, and this impacts me in many ways, continually, and i wish it didn’t.
a little over and hour ago, i got out of a planning meeting where people were very excited about the concept and talking over one another. i sat at the corner, not saying anything, not able to participate. if the meeting had been in the form of an online chat room, or at least in a more planned, organized manner, i could’ve participated a lot more.
Hey, you’re not the only one out here! (feel free to add your comments etc)
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/living-with-auditory-processing-disorder/
Do you find captioned television & movies to be helpful?
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/2007/06/08/is-it-cc/
APD certainly gives me no lack of “speed bumps” on the job
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/tag/auditory-processing-disorder/
including all that over-compensation one must do to keep up!
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/2007/02/03/running-with-the-red-queen/
And yeah, I really, really hate listening to voice-mail
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/2007/03/04/recess-sunday-funnies/
As someone working in the communication field, you may find this of interest
http://qw88nb88.wordpress.com/2006/11/15/classroom-audiovisual-spectacular-or-just-a-spectacle/
andrea
yours, andrea, was actually one of the first sites i found, 2 or so years ago, when i first started researching apd. i had done a re-edit of my post earlier today, and mentioned the one article of yours that i found specifically helpful at that time. then, coincidentally, found your comment awaiting moderation. so: synchronicity. thanks!
I have find it hard to engage in more then One thing at a time for instance if I’m woking at a task I have trouble focusing on not getting distracted which means I tend not to talk with people as much. So I need to work on not seeming like I’m in my own Universe when I’m around a lot of people trying to follow different conversations makes it harder to stay focused on any task that I’m at. So I need to be more comfortable asking people if I’m not following what they’re saying to me.
I know this post is a little old, but I would like to say thank you for such practical information. My daughter who is seven has just been diagnosed with APD and I am feeling a little overwhelmed.
If I can ask, as a child what could of been done better by adults to make life easier for you?
Thank you
it’s only 2 months old, it’s not that old. if 2 months is old, then i am practically ancient at 33 years. =)
interesting question, i’ve never even thought about that. i’ve only thought of it in terms of what people could do to make it easier now that i’m an adult.
as a kid, starting at 3.5 years old, i remember being continually confused and overwhelmed. i did very badly in school, nearly flunked kindergarten, and i was told i was probably “retarded”. i was continually getting directions wrong, getting confused, getting lost, and never understood what people were doing around me. i’d be sent to the store with a list of what to get, but the list was imprecise, half-batchedly given to me, and i’d come back with the wrong thing, feeling completely overwhelmed, stupid, and dreading going home, for fear that i’d done something wrong and i’d be punished. i remember watching kids playing, and i never understood what they were saying, i just watched, continually, silently.
only thing i can think of right now is that i never felt like i was included, i always felt like an afterthought, never understanding anything around me, not able to take part in conversations. one part theory i have is that as an adult i have a problem taking myself seriously in the context of problems/discussions with other people, and i wonder if this wasn’t ingrained into me at a very deep level, due to growing up not able to understand what was being said around me, not able to take part in it like other people were. i suppose if somebody would’ve slowed down, spoken calmly with me, simply sat with me and taken the time, that really would’ve made a difference.
Thank you for posting your thoughts on APD. I have only recently become aware of such a condition, and I am 52 years old. Suddenly, a whole lifetime of experiencing life through a fog has fallen into focus. I have a PhD and, like you, come across as slow on the uptake to people in face-to-face situations, in sharp contrast to when I communicate my thoughts in writing. Just knowing about APD has helped me understand myself so much better. I have developed coping mechanisms but they aren’t too efficient, albeit effective if I have the time – e.g., I secretly carry a digital recording device into meetings with me, and replay the recordings after the meetings. This is tremendously time-consuming, as you can imagine. I would be interested in what coping mechanisms other people have developed. (I would welcome any email response you care to make, Andrea.)
Sorry, I meant to address the poster, Unruly Asides, in my comment. Actually, any response on coping mechanisms would be welcome.
As I read these comments, it occurs to me that some of the accommodations that deaf people use, at least for communication related issues, might also be helpful for people with APD. For children (and for adults who have the time or are motivated etc), maybe sign language, or cued speech. For understanding lectures in the classroom or discussions in meetings, maybe sign language or cued speech interpreters (if you have learned the appropriate skills) or CART technology (basically, someone sitting in the room transcribing everything onto a computer screen so you can read it instead of hearing it).
Of course, Andrea (the other Andrea!) further above mentions closed captions for television.
For phones: if you learn sign language, then video phones would be a possibility. And if you want to use sign on the phone with people who don’t sign, there is video relay services. It is possible, at least in some places, to set up video relay service so that you voice for yourself (“voice carry over”) but the video relay interpret interprets what the other person says to you on the phone.
Before video relay was invented, there were TTYs, in which people type their conversations on the phone. Some people (like me) still use these. Easier for people who don’t sign, but with the down side that they are much slower (because you are held to typing speed, not speaking speed). TTY relay services are available for this too, to enable TTY users to communicate with people who don’t have TTYs. Voice carry over can often be set up for this too where you speak for yourself but the TTY relay service types to you what the other person says.
I don’t have all the information and resources at my finger tips, but two places I would suggest for starting to research:
http://deafness.about.com
Lots of basic information and resources about deafness, including technology etc.
http://www.deafread.com
Finding lots of blogs by deaf bloggers. You can also do key word searches here.
Also: National Association of the Deaf; and SHHH (Self Help for the Hard of Hearing) both may have info on their web sites about relevant technology that may be of use.
Of course not all deaf-related accommodations would necessarily be relevant. I assume, for example, that most people with APD would not need a non-auditory alarm clock (vibrator, flashing light etc). But in reading through these comments it struck me very strongly that so many people with APD (and their parents) seemed to be so much at a loss how to work around it compared to the awareness level that I see in the deaf community. I guess maybe because APD tends to be diagnosed later in life? And/or, was the diagnosis itself something that did not really exist until recently? (Then again, I tend to have contact mostly with deaf community members who have been deaf either from birth or for a great many years before I met them. So maybe my perception is skewed.) So I thought perhaps the deaf community and network of supports could be an additional source of ideas for people who are still pulling things together.
Andrea Shettle, MSW
wecando.wordpress.com
i’m not sure if i mentioned it in my post, but many solutions i tend to gravitate towards are those i find used by members of the deaf community, like you mentioned, andrea (shettle). i’ve also taken 2 semesters of ASL, and will be taking a 3rd this spring, because it’s just the kind of natural language my mind hungers for.
i sleep with earphones in and stuff to block out noise, cuz i’m such a light sleeper, so i do have a vibrating alarm clock. i’ve researched for years ways to convert voicemail to text, and am still looking for the ideal solution. anybody who knows me knows that i never check my voicemail and never answer my phone, and that they should email or text message me instead. i get a lot more out of movies that have closed captioning. people speak at me and oftentimes i have no idea what they’re saying, it’s like i can’t even hear them. when communicating ideas to people i either send an email or draw a descriptive diagram. several times when my language ability is particularly bad, i will order something in a restaurant by pointing to a menu item, or writing what i want on a napkin and handing it to them. and cuz i work, by necessity, with sound-isolating earphones in, my supervisor and coworkers and i are trying to figure out ways to announce a visitor’s arrival, and one several people has mentioned is installing a flashing light doorbell in my cube.
so yeah, i feel a huge affinity with members of the deaf community. =) thanks for all the info.
Thanks — you do seem to have covered all the bases. (And thanks for educating me, re, alarm clocks. Some deaf people use lights instead of vibrators. A few even use fans — in fact, one of my classmates at Gallaudet University had a roommate who simply would NOT WAKE UP any other way. Vibrators didn’t work for him. Lights didn’t work for him, even very strong strobe lights. Having roomie shake him awake didn’t work very well either. But then he discovered by accident that a fan DOES work. Which I consider weird because I can’t imagine a fan waking me up! But … whatever works …!)
I have a flashing light doorbell in my office too. The downside being that people who are new to me don’t know to use it and don’t always notice the sign asking them to. But my immediate colleagues know to use it now.
I also point at things in menus or write it down. Usually I also say the order while pointing. But the downside of that is, if I mispronounce something (in a way that makes it sound like I’m ordering something else), then waiters tend to go by what they think they heard me SAY, not where I POINTED, even if they seem to be looking at it. Which can be frustrating because if they’d just think it through a little they ought to realize that where I *POINT* is more reliable. Or maybe the trouble is that I speak clearly enough that some hearing people don’t realize how much I work at it, and therefore really don’t realize. *sigh*
Re, voice mail to text: if you had a TTY, you could use TTY relay service to listen to your voice mail. The cheapest TTY costs about $200 though, last I checked. Once you become fluent enough in ASL to benefit from ASL interpreters then there is video relay service. Deaf people can get the web cam and software for using video phone for free, but I’m not sure if they do that for people with CAPD. In the long run, that’s something that people with auditory processing disorder may have to fight for (build a coalition or lobbying/advocacy organization!). In the short run, you could at least check if they have provisions for that … and maybe try fighting for it at an individual level in order to try breaking ground for the next signing person with APD … or else pay to install the relevant equipment yourself. I’m not sure how much it costs.
Educating people to reach you by text messages or email can also be helpful. That’s what I do. The only people who try to call me via voice generally are wrong numbers, telemarketers, or people who don’t know me well.
Andrea
http://wecando.wordpress.com
I happened to stumble across this post again while looking for something unrelated. In re-reading your post and these comments, some new thoughts:
1. Once you become fluent in ASL, then you could use video relay to listen to your voice mail messages
2. Train people to contact you in other ways, such as via text message. (As a deaf person, that’s what I do. I completely ignore my cell phone’s voice mail because I figure anyone dialing that number must surely have it mixed up with some other phone number because everyone who knows me knows to use some other means of contacting me.)
3. Obviously text message only works if you have a cell phone that’s good for text messaging. There’s a range of options, but if you wanted to give up voice calls entirely, then you would likely want T-Mobile because that’s the only company in the US that has a data-only plan (i.e., in which you only pay for data and don’t have to pay for voice calls at all unless you actually make a voice call, in which case you would then need to pay by the minute–really worth it if you really do completely give up voice calls)
4. I’ve heard that the very newest speech recognition software has made some real advances over earlier versions. Reportedly, they do better at recognizing a random person’s speech right out of the box than some of the older programs do after several months of “training” in a specific person’s speech. I’m guessing this software is expensive. But depending how extensively you might use it (for understanding voice mail and maybe other things), it wouldn’t hurt to at least investigate.
At a guess, it may not be quite ready for really extensive use as a “voice to text transcriber” (or else I would be hearing more about it in the deaf community and not just among people who use it because they can’t type with their hands very well). But, anyway.
Good luck. Even if none of this particularly helps you, I hope it might help others.
Andrea S.
http://wecando.wordpress.com
http://RatifyNow.org
andrea s, i appreciate all your comments. i believe in the time since, for alarm clock purposes, i purchase something called a shake awake, which works amazingly well.
also, anyone important who would need to contact me knows not to call me, to email me instead. i’m considering getting an iphone, but the money isn’t there right now. i really like their visual voicemail concept. if i could get an iphone and combine it with the pre-paid tmobile voicecard i have (a $100 card lasts me over a year, that’s how little i use the phone), and combine it with a data-only plan that might be ideal.
i did also, in the time sense, discover sprint captel, which seems rather useful, and free, a phone transcription service. i haven’t used it yet, but i’d love to see if it could be used productively.
i would also like to figure out how to depend more on skype. right now, i have my tmobile prepaid phone for those rare times when i’m going to meet somebody, need to call for planning purposes, or change of plans. which is okay, because those are usually short, to the point conversations. any other communication i have with people, it’s via email. i then have a skype number that i use for all those times, with banks, business, registration and such, i’m required to give a number. i’d like to figure out how to more effectively use that.
i’m still dealing with those meetings, where i sit, frustrated and agitated, not understanding anything people are saying, and i know there is an alternative way to go about it, but having a rep transcribe for me, or such, that’s out, as… it’s just out. quite possibly, i don’t know, recording the meeting, and then using, say sprint captel to convert it to text… maybe that’d be useful. i dunno.
the tools are out there, and it will get better.
thanks again.
holy cow… finally found someplace where other people understand me. I was told I had Auditory Uptake Disorder… no wonder I coundn’t find real answers before now. Now I have some hope. I was feeling all alone going a funny kind of deaf… can still hear most sounds clearly, but losing the speech part more. I find all the concentrating I have to do to hear others is very tiring. Your helpful tips are very encouraging. Thanks to you and everyone else who posted comments.