In the teen world texting is everyone's best friend. You may think I’m just saying that because I’m a teenager, but in reality it’s also because I’m a teenager with Auditory Processing Disorder. Texting has opened the door tremendously for me. Why you ask?
Well for one, texting doesn’t require responding RIGHT on the spot.. That means I have time to process what I would like to say. Let me tell you, processing what I wish to say is VERY tiring. –In fact, I’m still thinking and analyzing things I said 30 minutes ago. Texting gives me a little break. I can think about what I’m going to type. When I talk, there’s no delete button. When I text there IS a delete button. I can rephrase and go back what I want to say.
Also, in text messaging, it’s words pasted on the screen. Looking at a text message is 10 times less hard than hearing someone verbalize there words. I don’t have to say, “What?” or “Huh?” or “Sorry..Can you say that again please?”. I can just plain old read the screen as much as I want till I understand what has been said. (Yes, reading comprehension is hard, but text messages don’t have a lot of detail and not many big words to worry about.)
Last, when I’m reading a message I don’t need to work as hard to block all the distractions out around me because there’s again no one verbalizing anything to me. When there is even one other noise and someone is trying to also verbalize something to me, I can easily get confused and mix up the noises.
Well for one, texting doesn’t require responding RIGHT on the spot.. That means I have time to process what I would like to say. Let me tell you, processing what I wish to say is VERY tiring. –In fact, I’m still thinking and analyzing things I said 30 minutes ago. Texting gives me a little break. I can think about what I’m going to type. When I talk, there’s no delete button. When I text there IS a delete button. I can rephrase and go back what I want to say.
Also, in text messaging, it’s words pasted on the screen. Looking at a text message is 10 times less hard than hearing someone verbalize there words. I don’t have to say, “What?” or “Huh?” or “Sorry..Can you say that again please?”. I can just plain old read the screen as much as I want till I understand what has been said. (Yes, reading comprehension is hard, but text messages don’t have a lot of detail and not many big words to worry about.)
Last, when I’m reading a message I don’t need to work as hard to block all the distractions out around me because there’s again no one verbalizing anything to me. When there is even one other noise and someone is trying to also verbalize something to me, I can easily get confused and mix up the noises.
I am MUCH better off sending emails to my teachers and receiving emails from my teachers than having them try to help me right after school while there are distractions from the hallways going on. 1. I can explain to them with a lot more time what I am having a hard time with and 2. They can give me a clear response without me stopping them being confused because of a distraction or because I didn’t process something correctly.
------
So texting allows me to communicate to especially my friends and teachers when I need a break from the constant gibber-gabber! Means a lot to people like me with APD!
------
So texting allows me to communicate to especially my friends and teachers when I need a break from the constant gibber-gabber! Means a lot to people like me with APD!
I'm sitting here reading thinking, "yup, uh huh, definitely" and so on. That is, until I come to, "I’m still thinking and analyzing things I said 30 minutes ago." I never thought about this one before. I'm constantly analyzing what I've said! Judging by the fact that you mentioned this, I assume that everybody doesn't do this? I've never thought about it before, so I've never discussed it before either...
ReplyDeleteHello,
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you can relate! -- Yes I feel like I do constantly have to analyse what I'm saying, and still analyse it afterwards too. In fact, I caught myself thinking about my field hockey game on the car ride back just now and how I could of changed my word choice to my team at half time about 4 hours ago. I'm Constantly constantly constantly thinking about what I say throughout the day.