If you’re having trouble following your favorite TV shows without subtitles, it may not be because you have a hearing problem.
Experts say, however, that the cause could be a common but little-known condition.
Psychiatrist and ADHD specialist Dr. Sasha Hamdani says the inability to follow dialogue may be a sign of auditory processing disorder (APD).
TPA affects approximately five percent of the population and can make it extremely difficult to understand auditory information.
Speaking in a video posted by her TikTokDr. Hamdani says, ‘ASD basically means that even though you hear well, your brain has trouble interpreting speech into something you can understand.’
Psychiatrist and ADHD specialist Dr. Sasha Hamdan explains that you may feel like you need subtitles because of a common condition.
With the rise of video-on-demand services like Netflix and Amazon, the use of subtitles has become increasingly common, especially among younger viewers.
A recent YouGov survey found that while only 28 percent of people said they generally prefer to watch TV and movies with subtitles, that figure rises to 61 percent among 18- to 24-year-olds.
But while some people prefer to watch the show with subtitles, others may find that they simply can’t understand what they’re watching without them.
Dr. Hamdani says, ‘Maybe you get distracted by background noise or sound effects or the soundtrack, maybe there’s a change in volume and suddenly someone is whispering and you can’t interpret it.’
If this sounds familiar, it could be because you have TPA.
If you always need to have subtitles on, it may be a sign that you have auditory processing disorder (APD).
In her TikTok video, Dr. Hamdani explains: “Some signs of auditory processing disorder include… having difficulty understanding what people are saying, especially in places where there is a lot of background noise.”
Dr. Hamdani also notes that symptoms may include difficulty following verbal instructions or not always being able to respond immediately when spoken to.
According to the NHS, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is characterized by “difficulty understanding sounds, including spoken words.”
The condition most commonly develops in childhood, where it can cause difficulties in the classroom, but some people may also develop ASD later in life.
Because people with APD may find it difficult to understand spoken conversations in noisy places, it may be very difficult to follow dialogue in television shows or movies where there is often a soundtrack or sound effects in the background.
People with APD have difficulty interpreting spoken information when there is background noise. This means that subtitles can help people with the condition follow dialogue in TV shows and movies.
This means that subtitles can be extremely helpful for those struggling with this condition.
In a blog post, Empire Subtitle SolutionsA captioning service provider, writes: “People with auditory processing issues may have difficulty distinguishing between similar sounds and understanding speech in background noise, and may need more time for what they’ve heard to ‘click’.”
‘Being able to see captions at the same time as hearing spoken words or sounds can help someone with APD process what they’ve heard more quickly and keep up with the audio as it happens.’
As Dr. Hamdani points out, you can suffer from this condition even if you have perfect hearing.
She says: “That’s why subtitles help; you rely on reading because you have a hard time interpreting what you’re hearing.”
However, watching movies with subtitles on all the time isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
In fact, scientists say that children should be encouraged to watch television with subtitles to improve their reading skills.
Researchers found that children ages four to seven are twice as likely to become proficient readers if they watch television with closed captions turned on.
This is because when subtitles are playing on the screen, anyone watching can’t help but look at them and follow them.
A 1997 study by researchers at the University of Leuven found that both children and adults exhibit “automatic reading behavior.”
That effect also helps people focus on what’s happening, which can help people… Focus on information like dialogue and plot.
APD is often confused with ADHD when it occurs in children, as both have several overlapping symptoms, but there are some key distinctions.
A 2018 study found that children with APD have difficulties related exclusively to sound, while ADHD causes more general impairments.
For example, people with ADHD find it difficult to learn songs or locate the source of a sound.
Dr. Hamdani says that people with ADHD also suffer from APD. The two conditions are distinct, but in practice it can be very difficult to distinguish between them.
Meanwhile, people with ADHD may have difficulty with auditory tasks, but also with following written instructions.
However, because problems with auditory processing can affect both attention and executive function, the two conditions can be extremely difficult to separate.
ADHD also makes it difficult for people to focus on auditory information, which can make it difficult for them to distinguish one sound from another in a distracting environment.
To make matters more confusing, many people actually have both ADHD and APD.
Dr. Hamdani says, ‘I’m an ADHD specialist and I see this all the time.
“If you think this sounds a lot like ADHD, you’re not wrong. ADHD is more common in neurodivergent people, so you might feel like you need subtitles because without them, it’s too hard to follow a show or movie.”
