How To Train Your Ear (Brain)

Over the next few months, I will slowly re-implement individual training sessions to help me process sounds. This is not something insurance can help me do. They do not have any beneficial resources for me on account of already having speech skills. I do have a deaf accent, but that doesn't bother me.
 I was advised by audiologists to practice listening skills by either listening to audio tapes while reading along with a physical book, or to re-play a movie scene and listen without captions so I can potentially train myself to file the words into a miscellaneous brain cabinet. Perhaps over time, my brain will unlock the cabinet and recognize that word when somebody else speaks it.

Have you ever tried listening to someone to identify all the little words? When that happens, your brain would lose focus of the message behind their speech. When people speak, you wouldn't pay attention to the "for" the "but" the "into" or the "THE" type of filler words. You'd listen for the overall concept and don't think about the exact words being spoken. To make a generalized statement: Listening is effortless for hearing people. When I listen to them, I'm trying to latch onto any word, then  I piece the parts together to determine the topic/point. The puzzles don't always fit together into something that makes sense.

What I'd like to do soon is visit the nearby library for free audio tapes and also check-out the physical (or electronic) book and re-start the painful process of listening to words. As it currently stands, I can occasionally understand words when I focus intensely, but I lack the ability to remember anything being spoken. What's the point of understanding sound if you can't remember it seconds later?
My brain is just not used to simultaneously listening and memorizing speech. I can read lips and remember the speech (although it isn't an accurate memory because I only pick up pieces of words), but I can't remember a darn thing when I focus on the sounds. Because of that, I haven't practiced active listening in some time. But that's part of what this blog is for: to restart various training (including ASL) and update along the way.