Disability

[grayestofghosts]

I am having a thought about how apparently when I was very little, I wouldn't always seem to be able to hear my mother when she was talking to me. So she took me to a doctor and they gave me a hearing test and my hearing was fine -- the doctor said I had 'selective hearing' and both of them had a good laugh about it, like I was just being stubborn and choosing not to pay attention to my poor mother.

I was actually disabled the whole time and nobody did anything about it. I still struggle to understand most lectures and videos. Nobody told me and I had to figure this all out myself in my late 20s. It's a miracle I made it through college, really.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

That doctor sucks, and I'm sorry you had difficulty.

I got my older two kids tested, because they failed what a friend referred to as the chocolate hearing test -- in which you stand behind someone and in a normal (indoor) voice ask whether anyone would like some chocolate. The audiologist was a trainee -- I took advantage of an offer of free tests -- but they were very good, and I learned about auditory processing issues as a result, which explained much (not just about the kids, either)! I wish you had found someone like that, or that your mother hadn't just written things off.

[grayestofghosts]

I don't know if I would have passed that or not. It turned out I had ADHD, so it's easy for my brain to drop conversations that are going on in front of me but also to unintentionally hear everything that's going on in the next booth over at a restaurant.

[fred_mouse]

I'm of the opinion that passing it (yes! I want chocolate) isn't necessarily meaningful. But a child who Very Much Likes Chocolate who doesn't hear it when it is likely to be heard (and multiple times) warrants checking. But I'm a strong advocate that when testing is easy, accessible, affordable, and not invasive, then over testing is preferable, because the atypical presentations are more likely to get caught as well.

Probably not surprising you, but one of those two has an ADHD diagnosis as well.