Selective Hearing.......Who has it?

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I have been told I have selective hearing. I swear sometimes I don't "hear" what people are telling me, and sometimes I hear whispers I'm not supposed to hear.

Here is an example:

Parent: "Hey. Are you gonna do the dishes?"

Me: *keeps doing nothing*

Parent: "Christy!"

Me: "What?"

Parent: "I thought I told you to do the dishes!"

Me: "When?"

Parent: *sighs*

All the time...

My ex had it and it was annoying. I be talking to him and he only want to hear what he wanted to hear so he ignore the rest I had said. He also had a selective memory.

I have had it in the past and I had to stop that.

Words

Preoccupation

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD)

ADHD Inattentive

In a few cases, petit mal/absence/complex partial/TLE and so on

Other

Auditory difficulties/glitches:

When hearing a song with music, tending to listen to the music in the background vs the words of the song itself

Understanding songs when the singer is using a rhythm which matches the pace of spoken language

vs

Not understanding songs when the singer uses a rhythm which slows down the words/part of the words along the lines of:

the words would take five seconds to say but the singer sings the words over a period of thirty seconds

and so on

---

http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-5/auditory.htm

I have this stuff, but I didn't know it was called selective hearing. Thank you.

I've had people tell me this. In the last few years I've been in conversations that only partly record in memory, or even totally forgotten. It makes a lot of arguments and problems...I'm still not sure if it's real or other people lying to start fights, but it's probably likely considering my ability to remember is like 10% what it was in high school only 7 years ago...

Unless I'm ready for it, I always have to ask people to repeat what they just said to me. Otherwise it's just sound that doesn't register.

I have great hearing, it's just that my brain won't process it unless it's prepared to.

Things said around me or even directly to me do not always get my attention or "register" when my mind is engaged elsewhere, but then, yes, some things even quietly directed away from me can bring me to "full alert".

I think of "selective hearing" being more along the line of the times I consciously decide whether or not to even let on I actually have heard something said.

This. I used to get accused of having selective hearing because of it.

Ditto. I don't think I truly have selective hearing, and nothing is technically wrong with my hearing. It's a processing thing. "Huh?" is the usual response to a large number of sentences directed at me.

If I have "selective" anything, I guess you could call it selective short-term memory. I may have heard you say it, I may have understood it at the time, but if it wasn't all that interesting or exciting to me, it's likely to be forgotten quickly. When I'm reminded, I'll usually remember when it was originally said, but I just didn't keep it at the front of my mental queue. So, I think people also say I have selective hearing because of this.

Is this question more about audio processing, or actual selective hearing?

The former is unintentional, the latter is intentional

I have the former - people can talk to me, I can hear them fine but in a general conversation, I'd say I would get maybe 80% of sentences. I know there are sounds coming out of their mouths but I don't know what some of them mean. I miss words here and there, and entire chunks of sentences so I keep asking people to repeat themselves. Makes going to university lectures hell - I stopped going to lectures when I was an undergrad because I just couldn't keep up with the content.

I had a hearing test done a few years back when I was getting my tinnitus checked out [and moulded earplugs fitted] and there's nothing wrong with my hearing.

I intended it to be about selective hearing, but you can discuss both.

I used to have that when i was younger and my parents asked me to step away from the computer and clean my room...

I am hearing impaired, 45 db hearing loss, but sometimes I hear what someone is saying ...but it takes a few seconds more to understand what is being said. I also been accused of selective hearing. Yes lectures can be hell. I remember this one teacher I had, I would pick up fragments of what she was saying because she talked so fast...and ask her to repeat on the subject. She would get mad cause she just said something to that effect. One time she made fun of me in front of the class. She also refused to give me extended timed testing and hounded every teacher after that to deny me of that even though I had testing proving that I needed it.

But on the subject of selective hearing....maybe you should all learn to lip read. Thats what I do because of my hearing loss and as long as someone is looking directly at me, I usually get what they are saying because I "see" what they are saying v's hearing what they say. The only short fall is you have to be able to see the talker's lips to lip read. Ohh and long mustashes are hell to try to lip read through.

But to be honest, because of my hearing loss...I have been known to hear what someone is saying and "play deaf" because it usually involves some action on my part when I am already doing something else...which I confess is true.

I've that thing SFS said. I can hear most things clearly, but sometimes I can't just decode what someone said and I have to process it for some seconds (the problem is I usually ask them "what?" but when they try to explain it to me, I already know what the said). What I say to ppl is that I'm a bit deaf (although I hear perfectly), 'cos if not they begin 2 ask too much questions

It's not selective hearing, it's selective *listening*. But yea, I get accused of "selective listening" all the time with certain people.

I hate it when people randomly interrupt me in whatever I'm doing and then expect me to process what they just said. My mom and dad always do this. If you interrupt me mid-thought I'm going to finish my thought and tune out whatever you're saying. I have no control of this. It's how my brain works. When I'm thinking I'm often thinking deeply. If you want me to listen you have to get my attention *first*.

The worst part is when people act irritated with me for not listening while not realizing how much their butting in and asking questions when I'm in the middle of something irritates me. It's even worse if they give me a tone of voice as if I'm stupid for not hearing them the first time. They're the ones who must have thoughtless empty heads. Otherwise they would more easily relate to not liking being interrupted in the middle of a thought.