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I have a dd5 who really seems to be unusual in terms of her processing speed. One of the things they do in her Kindy is to do some writing - obviously - some of the kids are all over the map in terms of writing ability... dd seems fairly typical in what she is writing - except that she completes the assignments very quickly. She finished the required sentence - so she wrote a second, she finished the second and started a third while the other kids were still half way through the first. Having finished the writing, she drew the picture, then did her reading (what she is supposed to do when she finishes early) - she finished all of the books that were available to her and then took a nap on the rug (I am not kidding) while waiting for the other kids to finish. This struck me as odd in many ways ....but this is true of all of the assignments she is given - for "math" and handwriting too, she is supposed to color when she finishes.... and she certainly does lots of coloring... She is quite unlike the other kids in her class. I have noticed this in other areas too - I am not sure if anyone is familiar with the game "spot it" - but wow... she is crazy good at that. She is just really speedy.... but the quality of what she is writing (both topic selection and handwriting ability) seem fairly on par for Kindy... does anyone have a kid like this? What do they do in school when they finish quickly? I have heard people talk about issues with gifted kids with slow processing speed... I feel like I have a normal kid (never tested) with crazy fast processing speed.

Even if it is just speediness I'd expect that speed will give her advantages that might set her up for advanced classes down the road, even boost fsiq if tested.
I wouldn't conclude too early she was 'normal' though, based on your description. Part of being fast is understanding well what you are doing.

I have not heard about kids like that either, very interesting, I am sure she will present a set of unique 'opportunities'. Best of luck! We definitely have the smart but 'leisurely' type around here!

My DD9 also has a high processing speed. It was really high (99%)when she was younger. However, after years and years of teachers telling her to slow down on her work, it has gone down, but still relatively high(92%).

Mine had a tendency to rush through things, and made careless mistakes. The teachers always made her keep a book with her so she could read whenever she finished class assignments. Needless to say she ended up doing a lot of reading. In the earlier grades, she had some of the prettiest papers around because she too finished her papers first and then had a lot of time to color them and make them pretty.

When DD was 6 and took the WISC-IV, she was able to nail the coding and symbol search portions of the test. The tester had said that one was a two minute test and that she could not turn the pages fast enough for DD, so she let her take over the test at her speed. DD finished with 40 seconds to spare. The tester had never seen anything like it, and she had been testing for over 30 years.

Because she processed things so rapidly, it has made her a very fast learner and a high achiever in school. We put her in piano when she turned 6, and she memorizes songs almost instantaneously. Mine shows MG ability and HG achievement, with strengths in writing and math. She was accepted into DYS.

She has not played the game "Spot It", but is very good at Pictureka and the I Spy type books and games.

When you DD turns 6, you may want to consider ability and achievement testing. That will help substantiate any hidden talents and her fast processing speed.

Good luck!

Yeah, I would hesitate to call this "normal," too. It could be that she's just matching expectations.

Anyway, what does age-appropriate topic selection look like? Kids will be writing on some of the same topics for years... What I Did Over Summer Vacation, What I Did For Christmas, When I Grow Up, etc.

I also wouldn't read too much into handwriting ability. Writing neatly requires a lot more time than writing quickly, and it sounds like she favors speed over appearance.

I was like this, too. Writing neatly was paaaaaaaainful, because it was such a slow process. Fast brains want to go fast.

I don't have an IQ test result that includes processing speed, but my DD also is a fast processor. In K, we got papers home with incredibly elaborate, beautiful drawings. She is now in a gifted school and we don't see this anymore.

She also stopped letting me read aloud at age 5, because she could read faster in her head. (I hate to have people read aloud, too!)


It also sounds like she has good fine motor skills? A lot of writing at that age is about motor skills.

Ah, this is interesting. Although I don't have any achievement test scores, I would also say this describes my DD. I think fast processors are at a natural advantage in elemenatary school because many tasks are primarily about speed and memorization at this age. Later on, things may look a bit different.

I can relate to this! My DS9 was given the WISC and his processesing speed was 99 percentile. It was the area he scored the highest on. Everything he does is fast!! He has ADHD as well so that plays into it but his processsing speed just amazes me. Every teacher he has had has tried to slow him down but honestly it just isn't in him. Even in kindergarten the teacher said we have him down to a gallop coming off the bus which she considered good. This is more relative to his ADHD. Anyway, what I have found is because he proecess so quickly all tests are done quickly. This is good and bad. He sometimes misses things because he skims the reading or question to quickly. He still always scores above average but I feel the speed sometimes impacts him. Where I have found it the most is standardized tests. If it is a shorter test that keeps his attention he does well but longer reading standardized tests he doesn't do as well on because he goes to quickly. The variance in tests due to speed could be more from ADHD then his processing speed, I'm not sure but thought I would mention in case you see this down the road. I agree though she more then likely isn't normal (in a positive way:)). If she is getting things right and doing them fast she will probably test high in this area.

My DS9 doodles all over the paper. This is because he finishes so early. Sometimes the doodles make it a little sloppy looking. He too reads when he is finished and tends to do a lot of this in school after completling work ahead of others.

Good luck. Its nice to hear others who have dealt with this or noticed the same things!!

I remembered seeing this same thing in an October thread. There are some other older threads with some interesting insights, too.
http://giftedissues.davidsongifted.org/BB/ubbthreads.php/topics/98820/FAST_processing_speed.html

Is there a correlation between ADD/ADHD and processing speed? At this age I almost feel like finishing tasks quickly is almost self-defense against having to sit still for more than 5 minutes.

DS5 loves Spot It! I can't remember his processing speed exactly but I think it was high.

He gave Spot It to his teacher for Christmas and they have been playing it in class during free time.