From: fayanora	Date: February 2nd, 2011 08:52 am (UTC)		(Link)

Another good explanation is to describe a species that is better at communicating than baseline humans, and comparing one's self to homo sapiens sapiens, and comparing other people to this other species. Like Homo Sapiens Novus in "Darwin's Radio" and "Darwin's Children," by Greg Bear. Here we have a species that can have two audio conversations at once by talking out both sides of their mouth, and old Homo Sapiens Sapiens can't understand them when they do it. On top of that, they have melanophores (AKA "dapples") wherein they can have a third conversation while also talking out both sides of their mouth. Oh, and vomeronasal organs wherein they can smell each other's pheremones, for a fourth level of communication. (Fifth, if they still have standard nonverbal communication, which would be excessive I think.)

	From: the_vulture	Date: February 2nd, 2011 09:43 am (UTC)		(Link)

I'm glad I'm not alone with that particular problem. Often, because I can have quite a bit of difficulty deciphering what is said, I watch movies with the subtitles on. It's not because I can't HEAR what's being said; my hearing is fairly keen and I can even be driven batty by the annoying hum of a TV being on without it playing any sound. It's because I often just can't decipher it, either because of too much background noise or too heavy of accents.

	From: wolfbrotherjoe	Date: February 2nd, 2011 10:07 am (UTC)		(Link)

Yes. That's exactly what it's like.

	From: unmutual	Date: February 2nd, 2011 11:53 am (UTC)		(Link)

Interesting. I've got APD but I never thought of explaining it this way. Sometimes I tell people "My hearing's fine, but my listening is broken."

When I get enough sleep (or when I take an Adderall!) I have much less trouble with these things. Unfortunately sleep and Adderall are sort of mutually exclusive, and I much prefer sleep.

	From: mdlbear	Date: February 2nd, 2011 03:57 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Hey! There's a name for it!

My filters aren't entirely missing, they're just not very good. Or maybe they're just easily overloaded.

	From: judifilksign	Date: February 2nd, 2011 05:52 pm (UTC)		(Link)

Back in the eighties, when I was still in school, I went to a school that was "open plan." This was to get students ready for working in office maze cubicles(I kid you not.)

Basically, the school had Gymnasium sized pods. Each pod was split by office wall dividers, shoulder height. English, Reading, Science, Social Studies and Math, all in the same pod, all at the same time.

For me, it trained my filters to be able to work in loud, chaotic situations. But for many, it proved impossible to learn, and scores dropped. Students without the right kind of filters ended up being bussed to a more traditional school