My stepson is a very bright kid but he doesn’t always listen. I’m convinced it’s because he doesn’t even hear us right the first time, not because he isn’t obeying.
I now have proof he doesn’t really hear us. Here’s this morning’s conversation: (There are no lapses or pauses.)
J: There’s almost a full moon!
Me: Yes, do you know how often we have a full moon?
J: How often?
Me: Every 28 days. (Which isn’t actually right, I know.)
J: EVERY 20 YEARS!?
Me: No, every 28 DAYS.
J: Oh.
Me: So, how often do we have a full moon?
J: Every 25 days.
The doctors say his hearing is fine. His teacher is going to have fun with him this year!
Yup, that used to be me to a tee when I was a kid. They (School councilors and various folks who ought to know) thought I had autism for the first few years of school, then ‘gifted’, then finally, a layabout slacker with ‘so much potential’. Flunked highschool, and now I’m programming NEC phone systems and looking at a very tidy pay-packet within a few years.
I wouldn’t worry too much about it. He’ll probably grow out of it and learn to pay more attention to things. He might do well in school, he might flunk out. Keep him engaged and his brain working, it’ll ultimately end up more useful than anything else. Schools usually aren’t prepared much to deal with students like that.
Hehe. Sounds like me talking to my 4-year-old. Reminds me of the line in Mosters, Inc. when Randall is asking Mike what will happen to the “Scare Room” when both hands on the clock are at 12:
Randall: “When the BIG hand and the LITTLE hand are both pointing UP, the scare room will be…?”
Mike: “Painted?”
So, whenever my son does this, I will say “Painted?” to my wife, and we both chuckle.
This sounds a lot like Auditory Processing Disorder, which affects how sound is processed in the brain, not the ear itself. I’ve had this since I was a kid, and I’m now 23 and haven’t “grown out of it” in the slightest bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auditory_processing_disorder
Heh, yeah it’s hard not to get frustrated with it. Our son is often the same and we read someplace it’s quite common in boys, something about too much going on in their heads to process auditory input. As a bloke that makes perfect sense to me 😉
Very much worth reading:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=260