Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Processing simultaneous conversations

My DS2.7 seems to possess a skill that neither DH nor I share--the ability to talk (loudly, and often effusively) over someone and simultaneously process everything they're saying.

Case in point: I was reading DS a book just now and he, while totally engrossed, was also talking excitedly over me about something completely unrelated. I usually stop reading when he does this, as I want to teach him to be respectful of other people talking, but tonight I asked him if he wanted to keep going. When he said yes, I continued. When I finished, I asked him an obscure question about the book, which he answered confidently, followed by "of course". He then proceeded to make jokes and puns about the material with a devilish grin.

Can someone else who experiences this--or whose child does--please explain to me what the auditory input sounds like when you can understand simultaneous conversations? DS could literally talk to me as I talk to him and pick up 100% of both conversations, but I'd be a sensory overload disaster!

Thank you!

My own experience is that I don't really understand conversations simultaneously, but I have a very large auditory buffer (auditory working memory, I guess). So I can keep talking while listening to someone else, but what I'm really doing is spooling what they said into my buffer, that I then "play back" when I'm not talking or concentrating on something else. This is also the skill that allowed me to be a highly skilled scrutineer for ballroom competition, back before everything was done by computer, because I could listen to someone reading a list of numbers and find them on a sheet of paper, continuously rolling my "buffer" if I got behind by 4 or 5 numbers.

Ok, thanks ElizabethN! That gives me some perspective on what DS might be doing.

The closest I can achieve is simultaneous translation, which is really only following one conversation in real time and with a lag (so not comparable), or being able to listen to an orchestral piece and then later hear the separate parts in my memory. The first is really just an auto dump of content from my working memory, the second just comes from the experience of knowing the different sounds of instruments and identifying them.

I'd like to understand DS' perspective to know how to treat the simultaneous conversations. (I've asked him and don't think he has the meta-knowledge to understand and explain what he's doing yet.) If he's getting value from multiple streams of input (and I'm not going insane in the process), I'll facilitate it at home while teaching turn taking with others.

At the moment, I stress the need to maintain eye contact with his interlocutors, which keeps him focused on the fact that the other person is focused on him. That way, he's also learning that if someone isn't making eye contact with him, they aren't guaranteed to be listening. But boy, is this an exasperating exercise, because I think DS thinks I can do what he does! That and a bifurcated tongue would massively increase my productivity!

Oh, I can definitely do what you're describing, aquinas-- but NOT what EN is describing, not at all.

That is, for me, speaking is on a different "track" than listening. I don't really hear my own speaking, per se, so much as script it internally before engaging the mouth, if that makes sense.

So it's no problem to release the brake and listen at the same time.

It all goes into the same transcript. Complete conversation in my head-- no problem.

I can do the same thing with auditory information in, say, a large group of people-- be following script entries from a variety of persons at once, that is.

With numbers, though, or a delay-- egads. Never.

I'm sure I'm not as skilled at is as I was 10 or 12 years ago, when I was doing it regularly. Back then, I could be listening to someone read me a list of numbers and typing them into a computer, while simultaneously listening to the MC read a different list of numbers that I had handed him previously to check that he hadn't missed anyone. 100% accuracy on the typing, probably 50-75% on the listening, but it was a pretty good backstop. Or when I was scrutineering on paper, more like 15 year ago, I would have my assistant read me the numbers written down by the judge while finding them on my sheet to tick off, and I would usually be about 2 numbers "behind," but never falling more than 4 behind and almost always able to catch up without missing anyone. It sometimes took a little work to get an assistant trained up to the idea that they could get 2-4 numbers ahead and I would still be with them, but it was a very efficient system. I couldn't also be double-checking the MC, though, the way I sort of can when typing.

It's not a skill I get to use very much any more.

Thanks HK, that's helpful, too! Do you experience both sides simultaneously with full comprehension, or does it come in parts on a lag? I'm thinking of a conversation that goes like this (where columns across people correspond to simultaneous speech):

Person 1: A B C
Person 2: D E F

Does this just process as ABC and DEF to you? Or does it come in as ABCDEF? Or some other combination? (ETA: removed obviously impossible case)

I wonder if we have any neuroscientists here who know of a basis for why some people are able to process simultaneous conversations...do they have a larger working memory, use separate types of working memory for input v. output, etc.

I'll say! That's definitely an ability I don't have. How long were those strings of numbers you'd be cross-checking?

If I had a short string of numbers to check from the MC (say 5) and his voice and the assistant's were dramatically different, then maybe, just maybe with a lot of caffeine I'd catch some errors. But I wouldn't bet the farm on my noticing them!

By the way ladies, thanks so much for these insights. You rock!

Most of the competitions I scrutineered started with recalls of 24 or 48 numbers, and 3-7 judges. Each judge writes down the numbers of the couples being recalled (so 24 or 48 of them in a typical first round), and then those are combined with the couples being marked by the greatest number of judges being advanced to the next round. So I'd enter the marks for each judge on my summary sheet, add up the total received by each couple, figure out what the "threshold" should be to advance, and then write down the couples to be recalled for the MC to announce (and also on my own next sheet for dancing the next round). Typically there would be about 2-3 competitions going at a time with the rounds interleaved. (So we'd do the newcomer latin first round, then the bronze latin first round, which might or might not have some of the same couples in it, then the silver latin first round, then back to the next round of the newcomer, etc.) During the bronze latin first round, I'd be entering the scores from the newcomer, then during the silver, entering the scores from the bronze, etc.

I never bet the farm on noticing MC errors - but I did catch them from time to time. I don't think there were a lot of them that I missed, because I didn't have to field many complaints from couples who looked at a sheet and saw that they weren't announced when they should have been.

If your DS is doing it like I do, one telltale is that if you ask him a comprehension question immediately after you finish the book while he is still talking at you, there should be a short delay while he "reads back" the auditory stream before he gives you the answer. If he stares into space for a minute then comes up with it, that's a clue. If he gives it to you immediately, then I think he is comprehending it as he is listening, so he's doing something slightly different.

That's really impressive, ElizabethN! Off-topic, but have you competed in dance too?

That's a helpful diagnostic trick. There was zero delay in his answer when he was chatting to me, so I have to assume his comprehension is immediate. He literally broke his sentence, answered my question, then kept going on his original train of thought as if no interruption had occurred.

Next step: DH and I simultaneously ask questions while he chats!

My mum was the first person to notice him doing this when he was a very young baby. At times, he'd be engaged with a toy and talking--often while wiggling around-- while I read to him. Others, he'd be rapt and laser focused on the book. One time when he was particularly multitasking I said, "What the heck am I doing? This is silly! I'm pushing this on him." She said, "No, he's listening. He loves it! Stop and you'll see." Sure enough, I stopped and he balked.