I have begun a third run through the Brain Fitness Program. I did the whole series of 40 lessons five years ago. It was eye-opening to find how much I expected to excel. The program is built to keep challenging the user by keeping the success rate about 70%. That is not very high and people who got used to being above the 90% level may be frustrated. I was.
But now I am older, wiser and more experienced. Posit Science has two software programs, Brain Fitness Program for hearing and Insight for vision. I am redoing the BFP because I spent a lot of time wondering what people said. I do wear hearing aids and the audiologists tell me that giving my ears a better input quality will help my brain's ability to decode sounds into meanings. Maybe so, but I can often tell a person said something but not what they said.
I went to my great-granddaughter's 3rd birthday yesterday. When we came home, we watched a recorded version of The Mentalist tv show. Both events gave me plenty of chance to listen and to watch faces and body language to try and grasp what was said. I think I succeeded most of the time in getting the message.
I used to pride myself on grasping each spoken word and on evaluating the voice tone. Then, as I aged, I tried to augment my grasp of the message by inquiring "What did you say?" I had a more detailed strategy of pointing out the word that I missed by saying something like "You are going to buy a red what?" I soon got even more pesky than I usually am with too many checks, verifications, and inquiries. It is too much of a chore to talk to an inquisitive interrogator instead of a person. Lately, I have been just skipping most of what I didn't get.
One result is that people can tell me something they are worried about or are ashamed of. Maybe I don't even hear what they said. They get a worried expression on their face and I know we are discussing something frightening or sad or shameful. I don't know what and I am not going to interrupt with questions. They've confessed their feelings, I have accepted them and served as a wise listener. They have experienced a wise, older person listening to the problem and reacting with little or no shock. Maybe life is not so bad, after all.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
