5 ms·

I'd never heard of APD. Interesting, all my life I've struggled to follow a conversation in a crowded environment, so much so that I actively avoid background

I'd never heard of APD. Interesting, all my life I've struggled to follow a conversation in a crowded environment, so much so that I actively avoid background noise with words in, I work with silicon ear plugs in or headphones and music with no lyrics. Looking at NHS symptoms they describe me as a child, didn't learn to read until I was 8. I nearly ended up in the remedial track but for a single awesome teacher who spotted that it wasn't that I was incapable but that I was struggling to understand in a noisy classroom, she gave up her lunch time for 6mths and taught me one on one by the end of that year I could read much better.

fillskills 9y ago
Wow, I wish there was an easy way to pay back star teachers or mentors.
- soperj 9y ago
  Is it really that they were a star? Or just that they cared.
  - Digit-Al 9y ago
    The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Sometimes just caring when no one else does can make someone a star... at least to the person they help.
  - recursive 9y ago
    What's the difference?
    - ImSkeptical 9y ago
      I don't mean to denigrate the wonderful contribution that the teacher in question made, as it's truly a selfless commitment with life changing impact. However - One distinction may be that the star teacher scales better. What if there were two students with this problem? Should the teacher stay late? Should teachers not take lunch? What if someone needs help in math, etc. A star teacher may be able to reproduce this effect for a large number of students. Perhaps using technology, recorded lectures, practice apps, etc. Perhaps organizing study groups for kids to teach and learn from each other. A caring teacher may sacrifice her lunch. A star teacher may not need to.
      - anonytrary 9y ago
        I am not clear on what definition you are using for "star teacher". But it sounds like "caring" is in the set of things that are required to be a star teacher.
      - akvadrako 9y ago
        The thing about teaching is that you can be star just by having one success story. If you are a vital part of the success of 2 people you've already clearly contributed more than your share. But one is enough; some of the most famous scientists only got where they were because they had a specific advisor. Neither the teacher nor student would ever have accomplished half as much working alone.
        KGIII 9y ago
        I am famous to maybe six people. So, it's not much. However, I wanted to add an account to this. I can tell you the exact moment, problem, response, and teacher - that changed my life forever. It was at that single moment that I understood mathematics. I wasn't suddenly good at it. No, I still pretty much sucked at math. But, I understood it was a language and it was descriptive. Many years later, that same teacher would be there to help me celebrate defending my dissertation. I didn't actually march, I was already to busy by the time spring rolled around. He's an old man, now. I still stop in and we are still fast friends. That one comment changed my life. There's a not insignificant chance that it has had a small impact on your life, assuming you've been impacted by modern traffic engineering, or in some pedestrian venues, or had some goods delivered. All that from a single comment that is entirely obvious, in retrospect.
      - yters 9y ago
        Just because they didn't solve all the problems doesn't mean it's irrelevant they solved one problem.
      - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        I think you're making a mistake here. You might be a star programmer, but only if you re-wrote every single program exceptionally, because clearly it's not making a fundamental change to someone's life once that counts, you're not a star until you've done that for everyone ...? Going above and beyond the expectations of your role in order to make a fundamental change to someone's life is enough to call someone a "star" IMO. It's not like someone asked you to personally pay them a bonus, you can award all exceptional effort s a "star" without problem.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  The best way to pay them back is to succeed, but it's not easy!
  - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
    >is to succeed // And then buy them a holiday?
- aaronblohowiak 9y ago
  Write them a handwritten letter and make sure it gets to them.
  - okreallywtf 9y ago
    This. I did this with a math teacher (pre-calc and trig) I had at a community college years later when I was taking calculus etc in college and killing it (after having a less than stellar math education before and during highschool) and I think it was a huge deal to him. He really put his all into teaching that class and a lot of people probably went on to 4 yr college and didn't think much of it but after having professors that hardly spoke a word to their students and spent a straight hour just writing on a chalkboard I totally appreciated an invested, engaged math teacher.
spuz 9y ago
I am sure you have thought about it but since you didn't mention it, are your symptoms those of Asperger's syndrome? Asperger's is often thought of as a sensory perception problem and Aspies tend not to be able to filter out sounds from background noise.
- rjsw 9y ago
  Only one data point, but I find it much harder to filter out speech from background noise in my second language than I do when people are speaking my first language in a noisy environment. My guess would be that we have multiple ways of processing language that use different bits of our brains.
  - opportune 9y ago
    I also notice that even though I can't read lips, I often find it much easier to understand what people are saying when I can see them. I think part of the reason speech recognition isn't generally at a human-level is that they don't receive the same amount or kind of data that we do. An interesting experiment might be to include a speaker's native tongue when trying to recognize their speech in a different language. I bet that speech recognition would be a lot easier on e.g. native Spanish speakers speaking English if you know to ignore, for example, the sound "e" when spoken before "st" or "sp"
    - twothamendment 9y ago
      My son was so good at reading lips that we'd play a game where we only mouthed words and he'd tell us what we "said". In school we let the teacher know he needed to see her say the words on a spelling test. In those younger years that was the only way he could tell the different in some sounds. The big one I remember was "th" and teaching him to look for the tongue on the front teeth. As he is getting older he relies less on seeing lips. I'm hopeful at some point he'll outgrow most issues.
- noir_lord 9y ago
  I took one of those online tests a while back that said if you get over 25 you need to see a specialist, I got 43. Not sure I have Asperger's though, I'm just a programmer who likes his own company.
autokad 9y ago
wonder if i have that. i always try to fill in words with context or words that rhyme with the sound. - when people talk on tv, i need the volume at 95%, everything else like 4 bars. - i hate phones because only one ear gets the information, headphones makes talking on the phone so much more relaxing. - i dont understand how anyone understands anything at clubs, how is that even possible?
- nothrabannosir 9y ago
  > i dont understand how anyone understands anything at clubs, how is that even possible Mostly, I don't. Earbuds help for some weird reason, as does pressing your ear shut. Looking at their mouth does 80% of the work. And most conversations I have in clubs are pretty mundane and uninspired. “What do you want to drink?” “This DJ is good. Do you also think this DJ is good?” “Do you agree with late justice Earl Warren that Baker v Carr was the most important supreme court decision of his era?” etc... Low entropy, easy to error correct.
anonytrary 9y ago
Wow, you just made me cry. That's beautiful that your teacher was willing to do that for you. Thanks to all the awesome teachers out there.

fillskills 9y ago

Wow, I wish there was an easy way to pay back star teachers or mentors.

soperj 9y ago
Is it really that they were a star? Or just that they cared.
- Digit-Al 9y ago
  The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Sometimes just caring when no one else does can make someone a star... at least to the person they help.
- recursive 9y ago
  What's the difference?
  - ImSkeptical 9y ago
    I don't mean to denigrate the wonderful contribution that the teacher in question made, as it's truly a selfless commitment with life changing impact. However - One distinction may be that the star teacher scales better. What if there were two students with this problem? Should the teacher stay late? Should teachers not take lunch? What if someone needs help in math, etc. A star teacher may be able to reproduce this effect for a large number of students. Perhaps using technology, recorded lectures, practice apps, etc. Perhaps organizing study groups for kids to teach and learn from each other. A caring teacher may sacrifice her lunch. A star teacher may not need to.
    - anonytrary 9y ago
      I am not clear on what definition you are using for "star teacher". But it sounds like "caring" is in the set of things that are required to be a star teacher.
    - akvadrako 9y ago
      The thing about teaching is that you can be star just by having one success story. If you are a vital part of the success of 2 people you've already clearly contributed more than your share. But one is enough; some of the most famous scientists only got where they were because they had a specific advisor. Neither the teacher nor student would ever have accomplished half as much working alone.
      - KGIII 9y ago
        I am famous to maybe six people. So, it's not much. However, I wanted to add an account to this. I can tell you the exact moment, problem, response, and teacher - that changed my life forever. It was at that single moment that I understood mathematics. I wasn't suddenly good at it. No, I still pretty much sucked at math. But, I understood it was a language and it was descriptive. Many years later, that same teacher would be there to help me celebrate defending my dissertation. I didn't actually march, I was already to busy by the time spring rolled around. He's an old man, now. I still stop in and we are still fast friends. That one comment changed my life. There's a not insignificant chance that it has had a small impact on your life, assuming you've been impacted by modern traffic engineering, or in some pedestrian venues, or had some goods delivered. All that from a single comment that is entirely obvious, in retrospect.
    - yters 9y ago
      Just because they didn't solve all the problems doesn't mean it's irrelevant they solved one problem.
    - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
      I think you're making a mistake here. You might be a star programmer, but only if you re-wrote every single program exceptionally, because clearly it's not making a fundamental change to someone's life once that counts, you're not a star until you've done that for everyone ...? Going above and beyond the expectations of your role in order to make a fundamental change to someone's life is enough to call someone a "star" IMO. It's not like someone asked you to personally pay them a bonus, you can award all exceptional effort s a "star" without problem.
DonHopkins 9y ago
The best way to pay them back is to succeed, but it's not easy!
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago
  >is to succeed // And then buy them a holiday?
aaronblohowiak 9y ago
Write them a handwritten letter and make sure it gets to them.
- okreallywtf 9y ago
  This. I did this with a math teacher (pre-calc and trig) I had at a community college years later when I was taking calculus etc in college and killing it (after having a less than stellar math education before and during highschool) and I think it was a huge deal to him. He really put his all into teaching that class and a lot of people probably went on to 4 yr college and didn't think much of it but after having professors that hardly spoke a word to their students and spent a straight hour just writing on a chalkboard I totally appreciated an invested, engaged math teacher.

spuz 9y ago

I am sure you have thought about it but since you didn't mention it, are your symptoms those of Asperger's syndrome? Asperger's is often thought of as a sensory perception problem and Aspies tend not to be able to filter out sounds from background noise.

rjsw 9y ago
Only one data point, but I find it much harder to filter out speech from background noise in my second language than I do when people are speaking my first language in a noisy environment. My guess would be that we have multiple ways of processing language that use different bits of our brains.
- opportune 9y ago
  I also notice that even though I can't read lips, I often find it much easier to understand what people are saying when I can see them. I think part of the reason speech recognition isn't generally at a human-level is that they don't receive the same amount or kind of data that we do. An interesting experiment might be to include a speaker's native tongue when trying to recognize their speech in a different language. I bet that speech recognition would be a lot easier on e.g. native Spanish speakers speaking English if you know to ignore, for example, the sound "e" when spoken before "st" or "sp"
  - twothamendment 9y ago
    My son was so good at reading lips that we'd play a game where we only mouthed words and he'd tell us what we "said". In school we let the teacher know he needed to see her say the words on a spelling test. In those younger years that was the only way he could tell the different in some sounds. The big one I remember was "th" and teaching him to look for the tongue on the front teeth. As he is getting older he relies less on seeing lips. I'm hopeful at some point he'll outgrow most issues.
noir_lord 9y ago
I took one of those online tests a while back that said if you get over 25 you need to see a specialist, I got 43. Not sure I have Asperger's though, I'm just a programmer who likes his own company.

autokad 9y ago

wonder if i have that. i always try to fill in words with context or words that rhyme with the sound. - when people talk on tv, i need the volume at 95%, everything else like 4 bars. - i hate phones because only one ear gets the information, headphones makes talking on the phone so much more relaxing. - i dont understand how anyone understands anything at clubs, how is that even possible?

nothrabannosir 9y ago
> i dont understand how anyone understands anything at clubs, how is that even possible Mostly, I don't. Earbuds help for some weird reason, as does pressing your ear shut. Looking at their mouth does 80% of the work. And most conversations I have in clubs are pretty mundane and uninspired. “What do you want to drink?” “This DJ is good. Do you also think this DJ is good?” “Do you agree with late justice Earl Warren that Baker v Carr was the most important supreme court decision of his era?” etc... Low entropy, easy to error correct.

anonytrary 9y ago

Wow, you just made me cry. That's beautiful that your teacher was willing to do that for you. Thanks to all the awesome teachers out there.