Career Support (Auditory Processing)

[MystieNymph]

Hi,

I wanted to start a thread on any career support this community has for my auditory processing. I decided to join surmising that there were probably tons here with APD. I don't have Asperger's nor do I have autism. I just have this disability where I am very slow at processing language and this puts me at a huge disadavantage in my field of design where I might be asked to communicate efficiently or process directions efficiently. I have gone onto tons of forums sites trying to get the answer for any kind of career support as it relates to the issues I have with this disability. I have tried VR (vocational rehab) but as many folks here already know, there are tons of repercussions to applying with little payoff, limited support, and accomodations etc.

 

[Gerontius]

Hello, welcome to Autism Forums. Hopefully you can get some "crazy good advice."

It is auditory processing as opposed to verbal processing (writing, etc.?) Very well then. Ask people in your shop to speak slower. Make a point of talking clearly & carefully; people may begin to mirror your precision.

Then when it comes to your field of work maybe try to wear noise-canceling headphones except when speaking on the telephone or talking to people. Oftentimes for autistics, noise, music, and conversations impede our auditory language processing. I can rebuild turn-of-the-century windup phonographs with expert precision, building them into actual practical record players instead of useless curios (just finished a 1920 model for a friend & fixed part of a 1921) but I cannot often manage conversations of many people in a large room because I cannot distinguish one voice from another.

This was a problem in early office buildings when the noise of dictaphones, adding-machines, and manual typewriters suddenly swamped offices, fraying the nerves of stenographers and secretaries and bosses alike. Telephones were altered into the "Hush-A-Phone" device, famous now for being part of a lawsuit but popular then to filter ambient noise out of a phone call. People packed their ears with cottonwool. They wore green eyeshades to cut down on eyestrain from gas and electric fixtures (Autistics often wear blue-light filtering glasses now; it's not quite as dorky-looking.)

I don't know what field you're in--public relations, manufacturing, medicine/pharmaceuticals, or whatever. But make something that works. You may need to get a sort of earmuff or headphone that cancels the noise. They work. I don't wear them unless I am mowing the lawn or shooting a gun, but some people wear them to vacuum. Others wear them at the dinner table.

If I had a few more details maybe I could have a better suggestion, but likely at that point, one of our more experienced will chime in. Good luck!

 

[MystieNymph]

Thank you for catching that. I use APD in these discussions primarily because people recognize the name more and I can get more answers for the disability of reading/listening to language. Yes, in an ideal world, I'd classify what I have as verbal processing rather than auditory processing since, my issues are more to do with comprehension of language than the issues of distinguishing sounds in conversation. Certainly, distractions of sound are an issue but I have been advised by professionals in the past that it's more to do with comprehending a lot of information since "APD" can skew this into having people think that it's a simple noise problem. I will take your word on the headphones idea for my studies though. I have contemplated doing this recently as I am currently living in a house where you can hear people's conversations very well the floors above/below. And, to answer the last---I am currently in the field of design

Hello, welcome to Autism Forums. Hopefully you can get some "crazy good advice."

It is auditory processing as opposed to verbal processing (writing, etc.?) Very well then. Ask people in your shop to speak slower. Make a point of talking clearly & carefully; people may begin to mirror your precision.

Then when it comes to your field of work maybe try to wear noise-canceling headphones except when speaking on the telephone or talking to people. Oftentimes for autistics, noise, music, and conversations impede our auditory language processing. I can rebuild turn-of-the-century windup phonographs with expert precision, building them into actual practical record players instead of useless curios (just finished a 1920 model for a friend & fixed part of a 1921) but I cannot often manage conversations of many people in a large room because I cannot distinguish one voice from another.

This was a problem in early office buildings when the noise of dictaphones, adding-machines, and manual typewriters suddenly swamped offices, fraying the nerves of stenographers and secretaries and bosses alike. Telephones were altered into the "Hush-A-Phone" device, famous now for being part of a lawsuit but popular then to filter ambient noise out of a phone call. People packed their ears with cottonwool. They wore green eyeshades to cut down on eyestrain from gas and electric fixtures (Autistics often wear blue-light filtering glasses now; it's not quite as dorky-looking.)

I don't know what field you're in--public relations, manufacturing, medicine/pharmaceuticals, or whatever. But make something that works. You may need to get a sort of earmuff or headphone that cancels the noise. They work. I don't wear them unless I am mowing the lawn or shooting a gun, but some people wear them to vacuum. Others wear them at the dinner table.

If I had a few more details maybe I could have a better suggestion, but likely at that point, one of our more experienced will chime in. Good luck!

Hello, welcome to Autism Forums. Hopefully you can get some "crazy good advice."

It is auditory processing as opposed to verbal processing (writing, etc.?) Very well then. Ask people in your shop to speak slower. Make a point of talking clearly & carefully; people may begin to mirror your precision.

Then when it comes to your field of work maybe try to wear noise-canceling headphones except when speaking on the telephone or talking to people. Oftentimes for autistics, noise, music, and conversations impede our auditory language processing. I can rebuild turn-of-the-century windup phonographs with expert precision, building them into actual practical record players instead of useless curios (just finished a 1920 model for a friend & fixed part of a 1921) but I cannot often manage conversations of many people in a large room because I cannot distinguish one voice from another.

This was a problem in early office buildings when the noise of dictaphones, adding-machines, and manual typewriters suddenly swamped offices, fraying the nerves of stenographers and secretaries and bosses alike. Telephones were altered into the "Hush-A-Phone" device, famous now for being part of a lawsuit but popular then to filter ambient noise out of a phone call. People packed their ears with cottonwool. They wore green eyeshades to cut down on eyestrain from gas and electric fixtures (Autistics often wear blue-light filtering glasses now; it's not quite as dorky-looking.)

I don't know what field you're in--public relations, manufacturing, medicine/pharmaceuticals, or whatever. But make something that works. You may need to get a sort of earmuff or headphone that cancels the noise. They work. I don't wear them unless I am mowing the lawn or shooting a gun, but some people wear them to vacuum. Others wear them at the dinner table.

If I had a few more details maybe I could have a better suggestion, but likely at that point, one of our more experienced will chime in. Good luck!

 

[Gerontius]

Well, I don't know much about design but I am glad you may have a job in that.

Verbal processing puts it in a different light. I would say, if you can borrow a copy of van Doren's How to Read a Book, that actually talks on how to improve comprehensions...if you can find someone who can apply the same concepts to language and speaking then so much the better.

One thing that helped me with language comprehension as well was learning how to diagram sentences. Most of my generation can't. You will need an old-fashioned middle school English textbook from about 1930-1960, or download directions on the Internet. By structuring words according to their category (subject, predicate, preposition, adjective/adverb, conjunction, &c.,) you can have quite a bit of fun structuring sentences. It was invaluable to me as a writer and gave me a passable comprehension.

I do not know if this will work for you because I do not know whether your verbal processing difficulties are strictly neural, environmental, or both. However I do hope this works.

 

[MystieNymph]

So, it's more to do with cognition than something environmental or neural. The part of my brain that doesn't function all that well and that affects my reading comprehension is the prioritizing part in combination with memory. So, when i read something finding the main ideas is a challenge for me unless I read it two or three more times. (I don't know what the technical term is called to describe this)

What I excelled the highest on in my evaluation was the 3D Block Design which tests the area of matching what's on the cube with a flat 2D image. (another reason I joined this forum; people on the spectrum usually excel in this area on the test which evaluates visual-spatial recognition)

It's very interesting you bring up diagrams. I've been using blogs that have helped out tremendously for this. Just like how any web page is designed and information is broken down into boxes, blogs are mostly handling that prioritizing/organizing part; i.e. main ideas are being constantly boxed or there each being assigned a familiar-looking 2D composition that I have an easier time with understanding. Visual vocabulary that is hard-wired and is used for organizing info usually lessens the struggle if that makes any sense.

 

[Gerontius]

This is really neat. Yes, I think it's very interesting that diagrams in your field of work are the best way to learn. I think of myself as a verbal learner but am probably more visual: proof, I cannot fix a radio (schematics & following wires) but I restore antique typewriters (no schematics, but easy to follow one lever & link to the next.)

Not sure how anyone would alter their own abilities of cognition! That's got to be tricky even with the vast plasticity of the human brain.