Do you also have this problem? (Please read - it's short)

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I don't know what this might be called... when I watch TV or a DVD, I have to constantly stop the show so I can read the subtitles, or else rewind so I can do so. Because everyone speaks too fast and the subtitles are also too fast.

(I'm hard-of-hearing and also have either Asperger's or High Functioning Autism)

I also have the following problem, which I suspect is related: sometimes in conversation, it seems like my brain takes a while to understand what someone said... it's like I heard the words, but they don't come together until a little bit later...

What is this called?

Is it common among people with Asperger's / HFA?

i dont know what it is called, though i suspect it is related to difficulties with sensory processing. i cannot say that i relate unless i am under stress. this occurred today, most recently. my family and i were watching a show and it was an episode i had not seen before. i found that i was hopeless in keeping up with the dialogue to the point where i could not catch a lot of the messages or information. i was under a high amount of stress today and attributed it to that (the stress).

i wonder if you encounter the same problem in the reading of printed materials. i ask because i also find that i have an impairment in that area when my stress levels are raised, which is related to how much i have 'going on.' just a wonder though.

This might be something called central auditory processing disorder. Wiki has a fairly good, concise description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_p ... g_disorder

Subtitles often annoy me because often they are too slow to keep up with what is going on.

I have an issue, where if someone tries to explain something to me and I don't get it, my brain will utterly switch off and it almost feels like a physical block that nothing can remove. The more they say once this happens, the worse it will feel and the more stressed I will get. I need them to stop talking or it makes me feel like melting down.

It's more likely to happen if it's an instruction for something. I have an issue with reading long written instructions too, I need graphics for things as well, particularly installation or assembly instructions.

Maths is something that I am really bad at, so mathematical instructions beyond the most basic, will cause my brain to freeze up completely.

My best friend since high school and his wife are both deafies so I've seen many subtitled movies. I almost never have to pause or rewind to check out missed subtitles. Although, I can hear fine. However, the times where I would have to pause/rewind or reread something are times when AS/ADHD traits are acting up and it's caused by limited ability to focus, very short short term memory, or being distracted by something else - whether a sound, sight, thought, someone moving around, whatever. If I'm not functioning very highly, have no focus & concentration, no short term memory, and am easily distracted - then it's like I'm so broke I can't even afford to pay attention.

Not sure about the delayed conversation processing.. could be due to distraction/focus issues, or "brain fog," or sensory things, or a combination of a bunch of different symptoms. Maybe the meaning of what they're saying doesn't come across instantaneously because you're busy processing all of the other things that form communication & there's a bit of a lag, especially if any symptom is acting up? It's said that 70% of what is communicated isn't done so via the words used, but rather via body language & facial expressions.. now mix in the fact that we don't intuitively pick up on body language or facial expressions and we have to make a concentrated effort to do these things, then intellectually process every bit of data to determine what's being communicated vs. just knowing - all of that could easily add up to a lag in processing what is meant by the words you just heard.. especially since you're also likely expending energy on lip reading, and while focused on that you're missing other facial expressions & body language cues and are trying to catch them out of the corner of your eye and then have to process & interpret them, making any delay like that even longer for those that are ASD & HH I'd imagine. And catching those cues via visual perception becomes even harder for any of us if executive brain functions aren't cooperating well with us and we're having difficulties "seeing the forest for the trees," as even though those facial expressions and body language may be within our field of vision - we simply might not notice them. Could be diminished executive function, "face blindness," or a combination of things. Also, if you're tired or it's been a long and trying day it's going to be harder to do these things, too.

True story: For the last ~15 years, approximately half my life, I've just assumed I picked up a habit of reading lips from talking with my deaf friend and then made the habit even stronger by bartending in bars/night clubs for about 5 years & utilized my lip reading skills to take orders while the bands were rattle my martini glasses off the rack and bottles off the top shelf. I never clued in until very recently that it's because I avoid eye contact with people and have found it much more comfortable to focus on reading lips during conversation than to make eye contact. Heh, ah well, at least I've seen a lot of nice smiles.

I think I have what you described, but I first have to mention that I haven't yet had an official diagnosis of autism. I got a referral for evaluation. So I vote for not sure.

Whether it's in English or in my first language, I have difficulty following movies etc. So it can be a big problem when we have a meeting at work because I cannot follow what others are saying. It's not that I have a hearing problem. Somehow it seems that I need some extra processing time.

With written text, too. My reading is extremely slow. So reading subtitles is also a big task for me though I do manage it. I end up just focusing on reading the subtitles and neglecting the actual picture. So if it's a DVD or video, I need a second viewing to truly enjoy/understand it.

Despite what I described here, I do usually end up understanding things better than others do in the end, particularly if it is something academic.

I believe it is somehow related to autism. I don't have any evidence or link that I can give you. It's just my instinct.

By the way, it was good that you mentioned that your post is short because otherwise I probably would have just ignored it.

I have what you're describing, but I don't know what it's called. I know I was diagnosed as having "perceptual problems" so might be what it's called. But yeah, I have to pause subtitles if they're too long or any kind of descriptive text.

I can't really follow what someone is saying if I don't already know exactly what they're talking about. That happened today. Someone at church I don't know too well started talking about who-knows-what and I had to do the routine where you pretend like you know what someone is talking about.
Sometimes I wish people would purposely talk slowly to me in that way that seems patronizing.

I love to read books but it takes me forever to get through one. sometimes I'll have to re-read the same paragraph several times before it clicks. Even here, I come across posts that are a little too long for me and I can't quite understand what the person is trying to say. Others seem to easily get what I couldn't though . Sometimes I have to read the replies to figure out what the original post was about.

I'm sure ADHD plays a part. Maybe dyslexia as well.

I don't watch tv anymore unless my gf dls a show, yet when i was younger i watched it with the close captioning on.
It's very easy for me to miss verbal things on a show or movie. For some reason i am not very good verbally, i retain info better by reading
or doing.
So with shows i do miss a lot and we end up rewinding or i'll be talking about what is happening in the show and we end up rewinding.

Funny. I am not diagnosed anything, but I recognize these things from very tired or stressed out periods. I have been thinking: "Oh, boy! Altzheimer Light". At work, I often miss parts of orders. My own explanation is myopic focus on the present task. Hmmm.