Autistic Lifehack: Hearing Problems

wriftbird:

cdrshiphard:

thischick25:

laughingmyaspergersoff:

If someone says something that you only partially understand:

DON’T ask for clarification with a generic “What?” or “I’m sorry?” (In my experience, people will repeat the phrase the exact same way without helping you to understand).

Example:
Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “What?”
Them: “Do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “I’m sorry, what?”
Them (annoyed): “Do you like pahganabasa?”

Instead, DO repeat the part that you did understand, and substitute a “What?” for the unintelligable part.

Example:
Them: “Hey, do you like pahganabasa?”
Autistic Person: “Do I like what?”
Them: “Pineapple pizza?”
Autistic Person: (Understands the words!)

I’ve also had successes with “I’m sorry, I only heard the first half of that sentence,” or actually verbalizing my interpretation of the part I heard incorrectly as a question: “Pahgana… basa?”.

Sometimes that makes the speaker think that they might be mumbling, or verbalizing in a way that makes them difficult to understand (because there are times it’s really not your brain–it’s their mouth).

This is also a lifesaver if you have Auditory Processing Disorder. It stopped the amount of annoyed sighs because ppl thought I was deliberately ignoring them or them saying the same thing but louder (which does not help when volume isn’t the problem)

I’ve had this thing my whole life where people often sound like they’re mumbling even though they’re not and I did not know it was a thing that other people have too until recently (in my 30s). I did not know until just reading this that it’s an autism related thing but I’m not surprised about that. (I’ve known I had autism since high school)

I’ve managed to cope with it for the most part, but one time in middle school a teacher gave me detention because I kept saying “what?” and she thought I was being rude. It would have been very helpful if I had known this was a thing and not just me.