I’m not the best communicator while not distracted to begin with. Often struggling to verbalize a thought or find a word I can’t remember for some reason. If I am focused on talking, though, I can usually get by well enough and even be a bit witty, especially if its not face-to-face communication. However, if I’m doing something else, like doing something with my hands at work, and someone tries to talk to me, I stumble over what I’m saying quite a lot. Banter is nearly impossible. I can normally have a bit of back and forth with someone and throw some funny quips in, but in these situations I just end up saying something stupid and often taking things too literally, only to immediately internally regret my choice of words as I properly process the conversation in the next moment.
I think it’s because conversation takes a good bit of processing power for me to have flow “naturally”. Any sort of distraction diverts some of that processing power and impedes my conversational ability. It can be pretty frustrating since everyone seems to want to talk while working and it just doesn’t work for me.
Do any of you share a similar experience? If so, how do you deal with it?
I remember in school being asked to read aloud, then comment on what I read. Teachers were confused when I needed to read it again silently for comprehension. I could execute the performative task of reading the text aloud, or the cognitive task of reading for understanding, but not both simultaneously.
I was so embarrassed to realize that not everyone was like that.
I find that I can let people know my limitations aloud and they are pretty understanding. Working out the correct phrase can help a lot.
That reminds me that teachers seem to be under the impression that you learn stuff by copying what they write on the board. That is a completely mindless task though that doesn’t teach you anything, especially if it causes you to miss what the teacher is saying about it because you can not see through the teacher so you are necessarily a bit behind on copying.
OH.MY.GOD!! I thought I was the only one! I have the exact same thing. If I read something out loud, I will have no idea what I read. I have to read it silently to understand it.