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DS5 complains that at camp he can only hears the first or last sound of the words when the counselors are giving instructions to a large group in the gym.

He was really down about it last night because apparently he keeps doing the wrong thing for whatever version of tag they are playing and feels really stupid.

His hearing screenings have been fine. We have noticed this a while and mentioned it to his pediatrician and she said he was probably just distracted. I don't think that is the problem. I have seen him intently watching a speaker and then have not really heard what was said.

We have appointments coming up with a geneticist for our connective tissue disorder and for an assessment with the Eides for gifted/dyslexia. I will certainly mention this to them but I am wondering where this problem might fit in.

Anyone have a similar problem?

You describe something indicative of auditory processing difficulties. The problem is that there isn't a normalized test for it until age 7.

Alert the counselors to his difficulties and ask the camp counselors to sit him near the front.

We had a lot of things that looked like auditory processing disorder when DS was 5 and 6. We did some related testing that would be indicative of it without doing the more direct testing he wasn't old enough for, and things looked fine. At age 7.5, with those major difficulties outgrown with with a related horde of other difficulties, we ended up with the diagnosis of apraxia, which seems neurologically related.

You should ask your doctor to refer your child for an audiology exam, which is a detailed hearing test in a soundproof booth. The hearing screens at the pediatrician can be worthless and can miss many hearing losses. My son has a 70 dB loss in one ear, which was missed 3 years in a row by the pediatrician. I finally asked for an audiology exam, where the loss was discovered. He now wears a hearing aid and he has done great!

I do. I don't think I realized until I was in my 30s that this wasn't normal. Came to a head with a colleague who would try to whisper things to me in meetings, and I couldn't follow anything she said.

With enough research and looking at stuff relating to DS, I've come to think it is a question of being heavily field dependent with over-sensitivities. I kinda see everything, hear everything. Very recently here, I realized that I am also in a small minority of readers who sub-vocalize every word. I experimented with not doing that, and realized I can't keep may place and the words kinda swim around.

I think by most measures I would also be considered dysgraphic, poor automaticity with physical learning, bad with lists and schedules; on the positive end of the scale I am pretty extreme in divergent thinking, visualization, system design, and unusual problem solving. If it is a zero-sum thing, I would not change a thing. This all maps pretty well to the Dyslexic Advantage material.

Coping mechanisms I've gravitated towards include being as close to a speaker as possible, not watching the speaker (full visual field + full sound is extra noisy), doodling.

My DD complains of this and we also notice in it in her, though it isn't a HUGE deal. She was tested comprehensively for hearing and auditory processing at a large university and came up clean as a whistle. I don't know what her deal is.

I do think she has SPD. She is sensitive to noise in general. This may be more a case of being overwhelmed in noisy settings. Her teacher last year used to play classical music while they did math, which she HATED. She needs relative quiet to work. (I mean, is this so unusual? So do I.)

Also, as with Zen Scanner (this is not the first time Zen Scanner and my DD have seemed to have somewhat similar brains), DD sometimes needs to look elsewhere, fidget, or doodle to process spoken words well. However, DD is not at all dyslexic or dysgraphic...

I think I have that problem, myself. I don't have any hearing problems when tested, but if I can't see the mouth moving, I have a hard time making out what people are saying when it's noisy. I don't lipread, but somehow it helps to be able to see someone talking as well as hear them.

Ultramarina, I had your DD's problem in algebra in high school -- the teacher played the radio and it drove me nuts. Of course, I'd go home and blast the stereo while I did my homework -- but I think it was something about unfamiliar music (trying to listen to hear the words, unconsciously) and talking on the radio, that just didn't work for me. Music I already knew would just go right through without causing a disruption in my brain.

I use music as a screening tool. I definitely have auditory SPD of some kind, and everyone else in my household does, too. My DH is like ZS and needs relative quiet, and my DD and I need white-noise of some kind.

His vision and hearing do seem unusually perceptive.

Examples:

He can hear the slight hum of some electronics from another room when the power is on but they are not actually playing.

He can sometimes hear his clothing move while he walks.

He can spot small camouflaged wildlife like crazy. His teacher has noticed this as did a naturalist at a local museum.

He can beat anyone I know on those "spot the difference" photos.

I am SO hoping all of this gets figured out over the next few months.