Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Question re large processing speed discrepancies

DS12 has a large dip between processing speed and VCI/PRI on the WISC (> 3 SD) and on the WJ-III Test of Cognitive Abilities his discrepancy is > 4 SD. He's diagnosed with dyspraxia and dysgraphia and he uses keyboarding for all of his schoolwork. He's doing very well in middle school - getting great grades and having fun at school. He's accelerated in some classes, and has a few classes that are boring but overall he's happy with where he's at - at school.

Here's the challenge - his homework is taking forever. He's so slow - even though his processing speed, while low relative to his other scores, is in the average range for his age group. Even with keyboarding it takes him a long time to complete his homework, and he really doesn't have busy work - it's work that is beneficial and adds to his studies, not repetitive mindless work. It's eating up so much time he's having a tough time fitting in extracurriculars. OTOH, when he's done his own academics at home for fun he learns so much so quickly (he's studied math and chemistry online as well as building/reading/experimenting on his own) - but in those instances, he's not doing much in the way of written work. I also notice that when he does school homework it goes about 10 times faster if he's scribing to me and I'm not sure that's all just the effect of me writing for him, I think some of it is having a second person talking to him somehow keeps his motor running faster if that makes sense!

Do other parents who's kids have significant gaps in processing speed notice this same type of thing? Is there any way to help get him moving a little faster? I am starting to wonder how he's going to be able to take the academically challenging courses he wants to in high school and still have time left at night to sleep

Thanks for any insight!

polarbear

eta - also forgot to add - he's not distracted, not slowed down by perfectionism, things like that - he works in the kitchen where we're always around at night and can watch or help if he needs help. He has a quiet study environment and we make sure there aren't outside distractions. He just seems to be forever caught in slow gear Same thing with other tasks requiring motor activity - things like putting coat/shoes/backpack on, walking to the next room to get a piece of paper etc, he's slow-moving in general.

Have you had him screened for a learning type? Perhaps he's an auditory learner rather than a visual learner.

Polar, how are you treating the dysgraphia? It seems like written product is such a major issue-- can he bypass any of that by dictating, or is it still slow that way?

DeeDee

DeeDee, I scribe for him occasionally, and that is much much faster - not just because I'm doing the typing, but because he just seems more alert and able to think quickly when he isn't have to type in between thinking. The challenge of course is that he can't always have access to a scribe, and our goal is to have him be working independently.

He's tried DNS in the past and from the first time he tried it insisted that was his first choice for AT - but he ran into time issues trying to train it on his own at home which bogged him down. There have been a few upgrades since the last time he tried it, and we've had it on our list of "things to do" since last summer, but we run out of time to do things! I think that we need to make a priority of getting a tutor to help him set up Dragon and give it another try.

We had an AT eval for him a few years ago and I remember then that the OT doing the eval advised us that dysgraphia really isn't the issue as much as dyspraxia and typing wasn't going to be the amazing solution for him that it is with most dysgraphic kids.

Thanks so much for your insight!

polarbear

My son is also 12 and has dyslexia and dysgraphia. Things we've found that help with the homework time as well as him not losing the homework before he turns it in is using the computer and emailing the work directly to the teacher. He also does better focusing if he takes 5 minutes every hour to get up and walk around.

Back in 3rd grade, it was the worst. I wanted to go to the school and intervene, because he was doing homework until bed time. My husband, who has the same challenges, stepped in and told me to let my son work it out for himself - that if I made it easier at home, he'd never find alternative approaches that worked for him. Believe it or not, it worked. It took about three months, but he got to the point that it took less and less time.

He still is slow and likely always will be, but he is much faster than he was.

So, to a certain extent, this may be one of those times to squelch the "mommy voice" and let him work through it. It was torture for me, so I know what I'm saying isn't easy.

We've had to learn to balance fighting for accommodations at school so that he isn't left behind in class or put at a disadvantage taking tests, etc. and not intervening at home except in extreme cases like large projects, ridiculously short deadlines on written work, and things that are just physically not going to happen.

Hope this helps. If it doesn't ring true for your case, of course, ignore. What worked for my kid may not work in your case.

Agent99 - we haven't had him specifically screened for a learning type, but he's severely 2e and has been through just about every type of eval you can imagine (and some more than once lol!). I honestly don't know if he's more auditory or visual. He's a builder and he thinks in pictures and movies. He doesn't particularly like to read to learn - he'd rather be read to, and he fits much of the Eide's description of a stealth dyslexic. OTOH, when he finds a novel he is really into, he appears to enjoy reading tremendously For the 1-2 hours it takes to consume the entire book, then he goes back to non-reading for days.

When he reads, he remembers every detail but has a difficult time summarizing information. Book reports are like the bane of his existence.

One of his classes that takes what seems like an unusually long time for homework this year is science. It's also his most boring class (according to him), the discussion is at a low pace, some of the kids in his class aren't very sciency and a lot of time is spent discussing things that he'd figured out watching Nova in preschool.. and his book is not terribly in depth. When he reads a book he's interested in (science type book) he can remember every detail and quote it back to us at completely random times months/years after he's read it and follow up with deep thought about the topic. Yet for his science class this year, studying two physical science subjects which he loves, when he has worksheet packets with simple questions to fill out it seems to take forever for him to get an answer written down, and he seems to look back at the book much more than I'd think he would need to. OTOH, maybe he's so bored he hasn't actually read the book until it's time to do the assignment...

Thanks for giving me something to think about!

polarbear

MON, it's great to hear that your ds is doing well in middle school! Doesn't it feel wonderful?


Incentives don't speed up our ds - he's slow whether or not there's an incentive. Knowing he has extracurriculars that he might not be able to fit in stresses him out but he's getting good about knowing what he can and can't fit in and making decisions about when to not go to the extracurricular or planning his homework out in advance to fit in the extracurricular. He's just in a place where the homework seems to be taking up far more time than his teachers intend it to take. I think his work speed is slow in school too.

Unfortunately most of his ECs are at night, not after school. When he comes home he's usually ready to fall asleep from being exhausted rather than being energized! I think if it was reversed and he could do his ECs immediately after school, come home and have dinner, he might have an extra perk of energy going into homework time which might help. I've also found a little bit of quick-burning carbs/sugar helps just a bit when he's really really moving at a snail's pace. Not the healthiest accommodation, but otoh it doesn't take much.



We're still working on organization - I'll admit to micro-managing it both for ds' sanity and for my sanity We've made good progress and ds is slowly getting the hang of it, but there are still moments (usually at least once a week, if not once per day lol) where we'll think we have everything under control and he'll suddenly remember "Oh! I have homework in ___ " or he'll forget to bring something home or forget to take something to school. I think the organization skills are all a long work in progress - as it all is.

polarbear

Thanks ABQmom for sharing your husband's insight. I am a person who rushes through everything, so it's hard for me not to want to speed him up, and your dh is right - ds needs to find his own way to work that works for him.

Your suggestion of a break every so often is a good suggestion too - we try to encourage him to do this, but need to make a point of being sure that he does.

Thanks so much,

polarbear

Oh, one other "trick" my husband has taught my son - whatever he is working on, he keeps a scrap paper nearby to jot things we would normally keep in our memory while we're working. For example, he writes each number down on the scrap paper as he inputs it into the calculator. When he starts answering questions at the end of a section in the textbook, he jots key words in the question on the paper while he flips back through the section to find the answer. At first it seems like a new step that would slow him down, but having the paper to look at re-jogs his memory and makes it faster in the long run.

In fact, my husband developed an iPhone app that tracks the numbers/functions rather than just displaying the answer. It's just Beta so my son can use it, but I'm pushing him to release it for others who want to be able to look back and see where and whether they made an error.

I'm the same as you, so it's been really tough to "sit on my hands" and watch.

Have you read about Sluggish Cognitive Tempo at all? It sounds like he is runs at a slow pace in general from your description, not just for homework?