Anyone bad at remembering verbal instructions?

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I suck at it. At work my office clerk will tell me what he wants me to do and I will do it but I forget some of the things he says. Last night he told me, when I go back to the main building, he wants me to turn off my radio and put it on the charger, lock the office and housekeeping room and bring the keys back to him but I remembered it all but I forgot the keys part and thought instead leave the keys in the office and come back to him. So I had to go back to the other building, wait in the hallway for the security and for him to unlock the office door so I can get the keys and bring them back to the office clerk. Because it was already 11:10, I skipped my shower and took it at home since I catch the bus at 11:32. If I miss it, I have to wait till about midnight for the next bus.

I used to think this was a new trait I developed but I realized I've had this my whole life because when I was a kid, my mother always had to break instructions into one thing. She tell me to do something and I do that and then she tell me then do this and I do that and then she tell me then do this now bla bla bla. If she told me "Beth I want you to go up to you room, and get your socks, shoes, coat, shirt, pants, sweater, and come back down." I wouldn't be able to remember all that so she had to break it down by telling me "Go upstairs to your room" and I go and then she tell me "Now get out a pair of socks." I get them out, then she tell me "Now get your shoes." She tell me the next step after I do the other. I don't know if this is an aspie trait or not since the question is on the aspie quiz except it's "Can you remember verbal instructions?" Sounds like an ADD/ADHD trait to me and some questions I see on the quiz have nothing to do with AS IMO.

I absolutely suck at it also. I'm pretty sure it's a common AS thing, too. It's like the words get into my brain and get decoded and everything, but it just doesn't "register."

I much prefer detailed, but jargon free, written instructions?

I'm absolutely awful at it.

Phone conversations: Don't tell me something important, as I wont remember it.

IM conversations: Bring it on.

I think it has more to do with learning styles, and since a lot of those on the spectrum are visual/kinesthetic learners, there's bound to be a lot of us with this problem.

As for me, if I have to remember something, I have to write it down and then stick it on the wall or something. I also can get away with writing stuff on my hand for short term things (also known as the ghetto "palm" pilot).

And I noticed that my short term memory got a lot worse after my sophomore year in college. Something about taking 12 classes in one semester seems to do that to a person. Funny how that works.

Yeah, stress makes it worse.

My 8 year old AS/PDD son has this problem; i wish i'd known earlier, cos i've had virtual meltdowns in the past at his "sudden stupidity" in face of 3 things to do.
I have problems with it if i can't picture each stage as it's communicated. For instance at campsite was told, once, how to change/empty the toilet tank; several stages, but i was able to picture all of them because we stood in front of the "little door" in the side of caravan while she explained etc. In fact i remembered better than the NT papa of my son.
However if is abstract, non-spatial, time based for instance, or too general/vague, i will quickly get lost unless keep repeating it, or write it down. I can sound both silly and annoying , when i keep recapitulating a list of things to do, but i've realised now why i do it; not to nag or hassle or from bossiness, but because i need to hang onto the steps !
And why i got the impression, from feedback in childhood, that i was unreliable, couldn't be left on my own, etc, and in new jobs why i so often found myself paralysed and mortified with embarrassment at having to go and ask AGAIN what i was supposed to be doing next. Used to find myself immobile in parts of office buildings trying to think it through, knowing that i was supposed to have a whole mornings work laid out and yet simply unable to work out clearly what it was. Especially as very often the tasks were so open ended; i didn't really understand what they included. It was HIDEOUS.

After 25 years or so of dealing with this I just started telling people that there was no way I could remember to do all that.
If I'm in a situation where I have to remember instructions (training for a new job etc.) I take extensive notes and carry the book around with me until I am comfortable with the routine. I need to either be shown how to do it, or left alone to figure it out for myself. Verbal instruction is useless to me.

I have no problem with them.

Tim

I am better at memorizing things when they are put into writing.

I am terrible at remembering verbal instructions. I can only remember the last thing said. I much prefer to have things written down so I can keep looking back and checking what I am doing.

When I am given verbal instructions, I always write them down, in any sphere of life.

It's not so much I'm bad at remembering verbal instructions as I am getting them. They're usually too fast for me, so I miss all the significant details. Even for something like math. Which is why I prefer textbook explanations with diagrams that can be read and looked at at my own timing instead.

Oh yes, I have to get then repeated several times!

ME

i have to note instructions down or say it loudly over and over again to myself =P or maybe because i'm constantly distracted lol!

is this an aspergers thing?

I've always wondered why I can get great marks in exams, supposedly have a very high IQ, and can write very well, yet I find it almost impossible to remember some simple instructions I've been given verbally. It took me months to convince my colleagues I wasn't a ret*d because I had to write my daily routine down as a flow chart before I could do any of it.

I'm not sure if this is necessarily a verbal thing - I definitely have this problem, but I think it's more to do with multiple instructions. We focus too much on one part, or can't conceptualise the whole way through for some reason. I'll forget the multiple bits I'm told, but that'll also happen if I'm texted or E-mailed the various stages of an instruction. Of course, it's easier that way because I can go back and check, but I still have to go back and check the full list of instructions.