Do you ever have to say something two or three or ten times to your kids? It seems like they can’t hear anything you are saying. I know my kids drive me crazy when I’m talking to them and they don’t respond, at all. My husband has the same problem, if he is caught up in something I have to make sure I’m looking directly into his eyes when I tell him something. It turns out they aren’t just being rude, it’s a real disorder.
Researchers in the Department of Developmental Psychology at Oxford set study participants to focusing on a task while wearing headphones playing white noise. Part way through the task, the researchers interrupted the white noise with an audible tone. When performing a more-difficult task (distinguishing which of two arms of a cross was longer), nearly 80 percent of the study participants said they never heard a thing.
It is called “inattentional deafness disorder” and they say when someone is concentrating on something, whether it is a game, movie or book, they are temporarily deaf. They reported that the “high visual lode condition” of taking a lot in through a different channel that rendered the research subjects temporarily deaf. In order to make sure they are listening, they need to stop playing a game, reading or listening to the music.
This is a good reminder to take a few seconds to have your kids look at you and stop doing anything that would distract them. It’s a good idea, anyway, to teach your kids to look into someone’s eyes when they are talking to them.
