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"Garbled." That is how Diane described communicating with her fiancé George. Once she met him at her front door with a warm smile, noticed mud on his shoes, and asked him to leave his boots on the stairs. Puzzled, he said, "Your suits stare? What?"
Despite Diane's clarification, George insisted that she had said exactly that -- and in a disapproving tone of voice.
Given the couple's tangled talk, and George's penchant for watching TV at full volume, Diane thought he had a hearing problem, but testing nixed that theory. The couple's therapist suggested that George had a deep-seated resistance to listening to Diane, so he blocked her out. Diane didn't buy it: "It's not that he wasn't listening or didn't want to listen. He was looking right at me, paying attention. But the message had been sliced and diced on the way from my mouth to his understanding of what I'd said." Diane was right.
Just as their miscommunication reached fever pitch, George was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD). The couple was relieved when the cognitive therapist explained to them that ADD/ADHD has a common comorbid condition called Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD). Simply put, CAPD causes a person to misinterpret what someone is saying and the tone of voice in which it is said.
Next: Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) and ADD/ADHD
Is It ADD/ADHD or Auditory Processing Disorder?
Identifying Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) Symptoms
CAPD and ADD/ADHD Listening Strategies
This article appeared in the Summer 2011 issue of ADDitude. SUBSCRIBE TODAY to ensure you don't miss a single issue.
