r/AutisticAdults • u/Sad-Dimension7400 • 1d ago
telling a story Processing difficulties
I struggle because people think I'm not listening. In reality it's just a lot of information to take in. I forget verbal instructions. I take longer to respond. Sometimes my mind just takes a while. Honestly I sometimes mix up words, pause a lot, and it can make me feel really anxious.
In school in my IEP it said not to call on me randomly for answers. I need time to think. I had a teacher do it once and I couldn't answer. I struggle on the phone a lot as I sometimes struggle to understand what to say and sometimes don't understand what the other person is saying. It said in my assessment that my processing difficulties made it so id have to have help all throughout school. Yet I was alone for the last 2 yrs.
1
u/Curious_Dog2528 ADHD pi autism level 1 learning disability unspecified 1d ago
Sounds a lot like me
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u/Frizzy2120 17h ago
Can you use like a speech to talk and have them talk and it type out what they are saying so you can read it to process it
2
u/vertago1 AuDHD 1d ago
I relate to what you are saying to some extent, but for me it isn't so bad I can't hide it most of the time.
For me it is a lot worse if I am trying to juggle more than one thing in my mind at a time.
For example if I have a list of things I am supposed to get done and someone asks me a question, I forget the list which was probably important and it takes me time to switch mental gears to listen to what is being asked of me. Sometimes I have to replay it in my head or have them repeat it after I switch mental gears to actually understand what they asked. My adult sister even wondered if I was losing my hearing but it was a mix of lots of background noise I was hearing all at once and tasks/plans I was juggling in my head while trying to figure out what sound to listen to.
I never had accomodations for it though. I usually could answer ok if I was called on randomly, so maybe my case is different. What worked for me was anticipating where the teacher was going with the class so I was a few steps ahead and didn't have to think on the spot. I don't know if that makes sense or not.