AS and Central Auditory Processing Disorder.

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Who else here has problems with often having trouble understanding what someone says? For example, yesterday I asked my supervisor where to put some leftover bags of snack crackers and she said the "gray bin in the storage closet." For some reason my mind merged "gray bin" into a single word, "graben," and thus I asked What's a graben?" hilarity ensued. It's like my brain garbles up where words start and stop, dividing up the phonemes (the basic sounds of language) into words incorrectly.

My son often doesn't understand what I am saying, so I have to rephrase what I say so he does.

I just found out I have AS last year. I read up on it intensively, for some odd reason.

CAPD is sometimes associated with AS. I was told by friends and family that I needed a hearing aide for years, but they did not understand that I heard everything, just distorted and out of order. Background noise destroys my comprehension.

I went to an audiologist in the area at the Gertrude Barber Institute. I have a similar problem, in decoding sounds properly.

Visual and auditory processing are impaired in those with AS/AD (among other things).

It's kinda the whole point of the disorders.

Oh, yeppers. I have to think about what people say to me, quite often, because I get the "graben" syndrome going. It takes me a moment to respond to them because (in addition to figuring out what I want to say and how to say it) I have to run through the list of possible things that "graben" might mean, given the context.

And background noise just makes it impossible. Just as when there's a TV on in the room. I can't focus on one and shut the other out. I even have to turn my car radio off if I'm driving somewhere and have to think about where I'm going (as opposed to it being a well-known route).

Main problem with speaking on the phone, right there. I'm not sure if I have it though.

When watching movies I always prefer to read the subtitles. Though I have no problems with understanding the language, words sometimes to merge and I loose the whole sentence meaning after that.

Depending on what it was, I might even miss out on more trying to figure out what was said way back.

Hm, I might have that, but no official DX. I do often mix up lyrics to the songs I hear all the time, and sometimes people have to repeat something three times for me to understand wtf they're saying.

Yes, I was diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder before I was diagnosed with AS.

Why's this diagnosis in the ICD-9 but not in the ICD-10? I know nobody having an idea of this diagnosis. They just say it's part of autism here.


I suppose I may very well have this.

I'm always repeating in my mind what someone else says, I did this for many years and do it automatically now, because if I were to stop, I still do hear the words - I hear an annoying sound in the background - but can't catch the words even if they're spoken in a manner as clear as the day.

It is very hard for me to understand any of the following: slurred speech, mispronunciations, dialects, accented language and foreign languages overall.


English TV shows are usually very quiet compared to music and sound effects and I have trouble hearing what words are said, unless the voices are louder than the background sounds. (A prominent example: 'Harry Potter' is easy to understand, much unlike 'Bend it like Beckham')

Instead of words, I hear mumble jumble, a variety of sounds that doesn't make sense to me and sounds nothing like a language to my ears. When I have an idea of what is said, then I can start to hear the words often.


Also, in real life background noises prevent me from following a conversation because I just miss out the words. In crowded places, such as the bus, I can hardly understand a conversation unless the other speaks louder. Most people automatically speak too quietly for my ears, which makes conversation very awkward often.


The only thing that doesn't make sense is that my strength is auditory learning. I can hardly repeat words that are said to me (we tried in school and I realised I couldn't repeat more than about 5 to 7 words from a shot poem). But I know the information. I have to paraphrase it, because the words are lost on me, but I know the information I've been told. From said poem, I knew all about which animals were in it, which birds, which trees - I had an exact picture before my mind's eye, but no clue on how the sentence got on after about 5 words.

I can't repeat auditory information, but the content is not lost on me (when I listen, which means repeating the words at the same time that they're said in my mind). So auditory leaning was for the longest time my favourite.


When I was younger, people told me I spoke way way too loudly. I think it has nothing to do with this, because when I speak quietly, my speech is slurred and hard to understand for others, thus I speak loudly. It's horribly ironic, I can hardly scold someone for not speaking clearly, because my own speech tends to be hard to understand. It's very annoying.

Well Sora, you said it all lol... all you are describing is typical CAPD. I have it too (repeat in my mind, hearing the sound of the words but not their meaning etc.... ) yep.... :S

If I could hear what you hear

This seems to be getting worse as I get older, and I do not know why?

Insensitive people have always said I was not listening, and i interrupt when I have heard a little, and then i miss the rest, even if I was listening. Sometimes I even have to write down what the other person is saying. I do no know... Very frustrating. Just the way the mind is wired. No sonder many of us have echolalia.

This happens to me all the time and it's so embarrassing. I have to ask over and over. I hate it when they agitatingly speak up. I can already hear them but not their words. I don't know what you do to get a test for this. I hate it.

I was diagnosed with capd when i was 12, its when you can't block out any noises, and almost like you hear too good, and have so many problems understanding what ppl are getting across due to the fact you cant block out any noises.

i do this a lot too.... i get so bad ill misconstrue across languages...

is hardest with instructions cause ill mishear one thing and figure it out while the person is sighing as they start to repeat the whole thing over, which i don't need........

This is a BIG issue of mine. When I am at my parents and I'm watching TV in the living room and the parents are talking at the kitchen table I am constantly complaining about their talking making it hard to understand the TV. I also drive people crazy because normally my hearing is extremely sensitive, but everything turns to gibberish when there is a lot of background noise. Oh, and good luck expecting me to understand what you are saying when we are right next to other people talking.

I drive people absolutely nuts because I often have to have something repeated 3 or 4 times before I understand it.