Has this ever happened to you.

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I have APD and am therefore useless at following verbal instructions. However I like to talk to myself lots, and I always try to put music on (only pieces I know very well though) whilst I'm doing things - especially homework. But I also find writing things down and doing them for myself helps. I don't think I'm one type of learner - I work well with visual, auditory and kynaesthetic, just in different situations.

But back to the original post - I've never been in that situation but I do find written instructions much better than verbal; ie I can actually follow written.

I am very visual if you give me directions I'll look at a map and "drive" the route with my mind .From then on I can drive there not problem. The wierd thing I after I'v driven to somewhere I can the drive to the same place from a different part of town without directions or looking at the map again. I guess when I place the route visually I am also locating it spacially so no matter where I am I know the direction of where I have been before even if I have not been back for years.

All the time. With me, forgetting half of what was said (or muddling it up) complicated verbal instructions. Write it down and I can usually get on with it.

Julie

You should explain to your boss that you have a different way of thinking then some people. And that you respond much better to things in writting than when you're just told something.

What you shouldn't tell him, is that he sounds like he's one of those people that get's very frustrated and angry easily. And that people like that aren't generally known for being effective communicators. And when you get angry and start yelling and whining that it's not a very effective way of communicating.


Here's something that really got hammered in during my days at college in my computer courses. Effective communication is critical to team work. (Especially because I wasn't ever in a good team, not that I ever have been)

If he wants something done right, it should be in clear precise writting. And that's something that should apply to NTs as well. Because if it's in writting, you can look back at it, and things don't get all fuzzy in your memory. Clears up miscommunication.

This happens to me a lot at school. My brain kind of "shuffles" the information up, or tosses it like a salad when given verbal directions; and sometimes I do the opposite of what I was supposed to do. I think that the reason why we do this is because we're trying to think visually but really the task is being verbally brought forth as complicated, with many steps. If I can see the end result of what something is going to be like or I can relate to it, the task would be a snap, and the steps would interconnect and make sense, and then I can imagine what it's going to be like (or have a slight visual image).

Verbal/Audio doesn't work for me either...I can't tell you the number of times where I've been in a group, we've been given verbal instructions, I've stared at the instructor as though they were speaking Swahili, have been too embarrassed to ask for repeated instructions and have had to watch and copy other people.

I'm even worse at interpretating written instructions. The instructions can be written in lovely, concise terms and I still wouldn't have a clue what they actually mean. I'm also shocking at understanding diagrams.

I've found that I strongly prefer watching someone actually do something, because that way I'll know exactly what they want. There's no ambuiguity or over-analysing involved.

PS: Oops, slight thread necro here

Everyday of my life things like that have happened to me. I used to think I was just thick headed or that certain things that I didn't want to do weren't important enough to me to listen carefully, even though I could take notes and get it all, just fine. I'm a picture thinker and if I can look at something it 'sticks'. I usually miss about half of a verbal instruction.

I automatically turn words into pictures in my head, but you usually need all the words to make a complete picture of the communication. The old saying: "a picture is worth a thousand words" is reversed in my case. Each word creates a 'thousand' pictures. The trick is to finally learn that putting two words together can sometimes, but not always, change the meaning of both words. SHEESH!

I always, always, always need too see something before I can understand it. Even something simple like a person's name. I'll ask for the person to spell it (if I didn't already know how) so I can make a visualization.