Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Slow Processing, Can You Grow Out Of It?

Hi! I haven't been on this forum in so long! Originally I came for my older daughter who is now finishing up middle school. We home schooled when she found school was boring her. Once we found a great school, we sent her and it has been roses since!

I am coming back to the forum with questions regarding my now, 10 year old. She was discovered to be 2E in 4th grade in public school. She was given the WISC and WJIII...

She scored very high in verbal on WISC - 137 and invited to the gifted program.
She scored 127 on Perceptual, Working memory 110 and processing speed was 81 and given and IEP with pullouts and accommodations.

She was also given the processing speed portion of the WJ and received and 80, confirming the issue. She scored in the 7th percentile for decision making.

For the WJ achievement test she scored very high or superior on most items except for only average in math fluency and another fluency, I can't remember which.

She was early to read and reads always. She was late to write fluently (reversing letters and numbers still in 5th), but has nice penmanship.

Suddenly, her writing seems to be catching up with her classmates. Very recently she has been completing assignments within the given time and recently took the OLSAT for admission to a private school.

She was given accommodations of extra time, but finished 12 minutes early and did not use extra time. She scored a 132 with verbal and nonverbal being within two points of eachother.

She scored average on her state testing. 3's on a scale of one to 4 with some jumps to 4's for particular things..like reasoning.

ANYWAY! My question IS: Can you fix slow precessing? She was not diagnosed as dyslexic, although I thought her to be. She clearly is not now that she is in fifth grade. She can finally do long division without making mistakes. She is writing quickly, (though she writes bottom to top formations). She was found twice to not need OT, but still struggles with ties and organizing her space.

She has had pull-out with math facts and organization with writing and organizing time. The public school seems to be very on top of things.

Her special ed teacher called yesterday to say that she believed my daughter is brilliant and she becomes so involved in the "research" phase and the learning phase that she doesn't get started on the project. She believes that her only problem is organization. She was calling to let me know that my daughter had THREE essays to write that evening that she hadn't finished in class.

If she learns to organize her thoughts, can I expect her processing speed to go up?

I have a hard time believing that a kid with a processing speed in the 9th percentile would manage to get so much done.

Do you have any thoughts or questions I should ask? We would like to send her to a private school, but the workload is very tough. I am trying to figure out if the extra stimulation and deep discussions at this school will inspire her or become too much. It seems so right for her. Harkness Table discussions, debate club, reverse classrooms, 90 minute classes, three a day.

But how can a kid in the 9th percentile for speed, make it in a rigorous place like that. How should I go about thinking about this. Will she need my help through middle school? She is a perfectionist and doesn't like help. She tends to avoid anything she sees as too hard, but she will never admit it is too hard. She is extremely creative. She loves to fold paper and packing tape is her favorite gift. She reads non-stop. She is trying to learn to code. She seems to have to work extra hard because she is reversing a lot of code.

Thanks in advance.

I believe that one can train the brain to get out of the slow processing speed trap (brain plasticity). But, I am not sure if it is scientifically proven. I am interested in this topic because I have a child who is really slow in decision making and cannot make up his mind as to which shoe to wear, which pencil to use etc. He also takes forever in word problems and creative writing. I look forward to what others say.

My experience with this is that processing speed deficits get compounded by 'anxiety' in the given area of slowness, ex: computation. So sometimes a child who is slow can be VERY slow and sometimes just ok - if they don't feel put on the spot.

I myself was considered pretty slow on math facts and consequently grew to kind of hate being asked to do math in my head...although I ended up doing great in math classes where speed of computation was not an issue.

I think my son has gone through/is going through nearly the same: very slow to learn math facts but now in h.s., doing super in geometry. Is he faster? probably a bit. He was tested when he was 8 and again when he was 14, and both times scored < 10th percentile.

Am I faster? well I never got tested as a child for processing speed, but I just did get tested and am at least now above average. So maybe folks grow out of it, but I think it takes ...a while.

reversing a lot of code might be a red flag - what is the 2nd e? does it explain that issue?

I would love to figure out the reversing thing. 2e was given for gifted with slow processing. 9th percentile for processing and 99th for verbal reasoning.

Is this something she can just learn to live with and continue to be in advanced classes or is it something that will be a problem for the rest of her life. Should I look more into what is causing the slow processing speed?

She went through vision therapy twice. Might be something there I suppose.

She isn't very cooperative with the eye exercises at home so I stopped paying for the therapy.

Would it be worth testing again to see if it has improved? Maybe just the Wookcock Johnoson Cognitive test for processing speed since it is quick and easy.

Is it something the school would do a year after the first one to see if she has improved or is that unheard of.


Math facts, spelling and reversing seem to be her areas of weakness. Her writing is coming along nicely and she's pretty good at math, especially word problems.


She has stopped reversing letters and numbers for the most part, at 10. Maybe it was holding her back which is why her writing is coming along finally. I'm not sure what to think, but she is super creative and super smart. I wish there was a magic wand. I figure that even if I did discover a REASON her speed was slow, what are the chances it could be fixed. So why bother.

I don't think it's something you can grow out of exactly. I do think slow processing it is something you can learn to work with and compensate for so it's less obvious.

I say this about my DD and her LD's.. She is 21 and graduating from college this spring. Her LD's haven't disappeared but she has learned (through hard work) how to function despite her LD's. Knowing exactly what her LS's were helped us to teach her what she needs to do to write that college paper and/or read that text book. That she can't emulate other students and try and bang out an essay not matter how short in a evening.

Why are you anxious to have her processing skills improve on WJC? Those scores help you & her teachers understand where she struggles. My son has low processing & WM and I found was that some grades have been harder than others. Just because things seems better today, might not mean that when the next grade levels up (requires drastically new skills) this may come to play again. Often grades like 4th, 6th or 7th, and 9th are level up times where teachers expect higher levels of EF & drastically more seatwork or homework.

Thank you bluemagic. Glad to hear that they can learn to manage the disability. I don't want her to have to deal with this for the rest of her life. Since I see a glimmer of hope recently, I am clinging to the belief that she can "even out," "grow out of it," or make it just go away. If she tested in the normal range, I could believe that she will not have to struggle her whole life. I know the scores help the teachers understand her, but I'd rather there be nothing to understand.

To keep my hope alive, I thought I'd ask here if there is anything that causes slow processing scores that one can grow out of. If there is, I will choose to cross my fingers for her.

I did not post this earlier, but there is some belief that learning a musical instrument on a regular basis will help improve the nerve connections across several parts of the brain and improve the brain efficiency - because music learning involves coordination between various parts of the body, using the feet, eyes, ears, memory while keeping up with a metronome or an orchestra. The corpus callosum which is the bridge between both the left and right sides of the brain is strengthened. This supposedly helps to increase processing speed eventually.

Another thing that I have heard is that regular cardio exercise increases brain functioning. I am going to hear Dr John Ratey speak on this topic soon and I look forward to learning about this.
http://sparkinglife.org/page/add-adhd

One more thing, you say is I don't want her to struggle with this her whole life. She probably won't. Some skills like low processing & working memory make certain things difficult, like taking a timed math test but not others like solving that challenge math question. It's why many people use GAI for gifted identification because many gifted kids lag in this area. (It's very common among gifted kids.) Classrooms can be more difficult that many jobs because teachers these days wants students to learn to do everything quickly. But not everything in life requires working quickly, sometimes it's more important to think long & hard. We are all have our differences and IMO it's good that we have a world of people with different strengths & interests.

The sad part is the things my DS17 has decided he didn't like that I only later realized was because of his slower processing. I could never get him interested in chess because when I tried group chess classes/groups they all used chess clocks. It's not that chess that was uninteresting it was having to play chess against a timer that he didn't like.

As to the learning an musical instrument helping. My son plays a musical instrument. He loves it, has played clarinet for 7 years. Plays 1st chair in the "jv" H.S. band. He is in marching band and it's been wonderful for him. Has it helped his processing speed? I have no idea because I never had him tested till H.S. & didn't even really understand that was one of his issues. Has he learned a lot from being in music. Yes.. defiantly and I'd recommend it in a heart beat if your child has any interest. But I'm not holding out that it's going to improve his processing speed.

Wow spaghetti! This sounds EXACTLY like my daughter. Even the crazy high reading fluency! How can you have such fast reading with such slow processing. I wish I understood more. And she was VERY bad 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, but now suddenly in 5th grade she seems to be improving, like you said and isn't even using extra time. And interesting that you had it rechecked and it remained the same. This gives me a lot of answers and confirms to me that I will just never understand this.

As far as the music goes, she tool group violin in 2nd grade and started up with school lessons in 4th grade. In second grade she played BEAUTIFULLY! Once she began reading notes it was all over. She couldn't do it and she didn't want to play anymore.

I don't know if it is due to slow processing or her tendency to flip symbols. I had her in ballet, thinking it would help the whole flipping and processing thing, but again, it was very hard for her.

She messes up her right and left and uses her left side to jump and turn. In ballet they start with the right side. All of this combined with the (fast for her) pace was a disaster. She has been doing a jazz class that she enjoys even if she is always a beat behind.

She likes swimming and is working on her strokes to join the swim team.

Her overall favorite thing in life it building things. She uses tape and cardboard and paper. I feel like if we could find just one thing she is really good at it would do wonders for her self esteem.

She WAS selected for a selective after school art program. She enjoys art, and is good at it, but doesn't seem to have the passion you need to sustain the interest long term.

I am looking for a robotics group for her..I think that might do it.

We thank you so much for your input. I will look into seeing if she would accept maybe private lessons for violin. Then they can go at her speed.

How old is she 5th grade and what 10 or 11. I know it seems more common these days but MANY kids don't find their passion at this age. It's OK to try a lot of things to figure out what that is IMO. I've known many a kid that seemed passionate about something at this age and then dislike it in H.S. Not everything they like at this age sticks. My older daughter is graduating college with BFA this spring. At 5th grade I would have said she like theater not art. She didn't show at lot of passion for it in 5th grade either. (Enjoyed it but not passion) Don't discount lack of enthusiasm for something at this age not being interested enough as a teenager or adult.

I hope the swimming goes well for her. As for not telling left from right. Is she ambidextrous? My husband has problems with left & right and it's because he is ambidextrous and therefore doesn't have that strong sense of understanding what is right.

The above description sounds like me as well. I can read crazy fast & could as a kid. But I get tongue tied in a fast paced discussion and didn't like timed tests either. Makes me wonder how much I'm alike my kid.