Poor Reading Comprehension?

Post Reply New Topic

Does anyone else have a very bad ability to concentrate on text and very poor reading comprehension?

Even though I am in university, I have extremely poor reading compehension/ability to focus on text. I may read one chapter and then read it again and find out that I completely misunderstood some sections. I usually have to read my readings meticulously at least 2 times with notes and self-testing in order to understand the material.

When I read books for leisure, especially with the books I've read more than one year ago, I can follow the words in the books but cannot produce a gist of what I've read after I've read it. I enjoy reading about my special interest a lot, but the truth is, I feel my interest more than I actually take in the information. I always somehow just end up combining the words and the sensory input of my environment into a sensory mozaic that feels very, very pleasant. I get colors, sounds, and random excerpts of songs in my mind with words and then let my mind wander onto a chain of associations of scenes.

So I feel like a complete dumbass when trying to tell people facts often than not because I constantly screw them up. I either mess up on the wording or on the fact itself because I've read it incorrectly. Perhaps I could talk about my interest more if I had a chance to read about it more (and reread books to actually understand them), but I think that as I'm pushing myself to study and NOT read books, it becomes very difficult to engage myself with my interest for prolonged periods of time. So I'm just sort of stuck feeling stupid whenever I do try to talk about my interest while I am forced to stuff into my head large quantities of information that my brain works really hard to reject because all it really wants is to be immersed in the special interest.

I feel like a lot of other people with ASD are much better than me at taking in large amounts of information in a short period of time. So I wonder if there is anyone else out there who at least feels the same way.

I like talking and thinking about my interest (and the truth is, I can only really ever talk about facts or about myself in a regular conversation) but I hate how I constantly mess up facts like that and it makes me feel stupid. And I try not to talk about myself because that makes me seem self-centered.

I scored highly on reading comprehension, I'm not sure if anyone scored higher than me, but I only know of one other person who got the same score as me. I scored higher than the people who were in AP Literture who scores I found. However, when I was actually taking the test I didn't feel like a was very good at it, and this score was minor in comparison to my Math scores. I also find it difficult to concentrate on textbooks and often need to reread what it is says to get it. I know the problem isn't the content because I usually understand what is being taught in lectures before everyone else and I often need to explain it to my peers.

I have difficulty retaining a lot of information. Part of that is my ADHD. On medication I remember a lot more.

Some people can just read something and memorise most of ti for a very long time. I call them the Stephen Fry's.

Some people just remember tidbits of information and use it as a good antidote. I call them the Allen Davies.

I watch too much QI...and I forget most of what I watch.


I've been doing something, it may sound pretty ridiculous, but it has helped me remember information as I'm reading it.

I blink at every break in a sentence or even half way through it. I do this because 1) I have strained eye muscles and have to exercise them; 2) I'm impatient for a chapter to end and this keeps my attention, and 3)I hate reading over lines.

Even though medication helps my memory I blink about 10 times less than I usually blink.

Note: Information is processed through the eye, blinking stores the information. I heard this on a radio show I can only remember 2% of.

I am really good with reading comprehension but I cant understand math at all.
I think there is no point in learning it unless you plan on being a rocket scientist because we have calculators.
I feel the same way at math as you do at reading comprehension.
I assume that you are good at math because of your user name.
My point is that we are all good at something different.