Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Low working memory and processing-ways to assist?

New here,my child had a usual wisc high verbal iq but the working memory and processing speed are quite a lot lower.verb>145 fsiq 126
He is also disorganised. He has managed to pull most of his marks up, but the math is still very erratic a mark in the 80's (well above class av)then another 58%.
He needs to get more organised.
ADD was suggested, but since he was told his verbal iq he has managed to pull marks up from very average to top quartile. (school entrance selective, but not completely)
Teachers will say he is very smart, but then he has so much trouble with math and the boring rote learning periodic tables etc ( the flash cards have worked well for the periodic table). The english and humanities seem to be ok.
Someone else had said it was OEs
He is constantly reading, 'his' books, rather than the school ones, which is good.
Any suggestions of any methods to assist memory?

I am cautious about labelling, but at the rate he is going, he may not get consistent enough marks for uni.
He is a lot more confident this year and has a lot more friends at the new school, but that wont last if he is streamed out of his friends classes.
Have you tried medication? I will have a look at the cogmed site? Another problem was he never had to work until last year as the primary school didnt push at all, so it was a huge shock when he hit high school.

My DS16 is very dependent on his blackberry. The calendar and priority list app makes a world of difference. He seems to find difficulty with learning new concepts especially if it requires significant time on task. We have a tutor show him once, one on one, and he manages fine afterwards.

We tried meds for a year and a half now. My son claims it makes a huge difference for him and he seems less fustrated.

The last year for us was a combination of OE, teen hormones, and ADHD issues. I must have screened a handful of adolescent psychiatrist before I found one who understood both ADHD, hypersensitivity, and gifted issues.




I had the same feeling when my son entered middle school. He had to learn to study. That is where we were getting the strangest grades - high 90s or 60s, nothing in the 70s to 80s range.

Next year, my son will be a junior and I'm thinking about getting an accomodation for him to use the laptop for notetaking and writing. His typing speed is around 75wpm and tends loose his thoughts with pencil and paper...

Have you determined what the other exceptionality is? We had the same score spread on the WISC. Dd's FSIQ with the working memory and processing speed included came out at 130. When those two avg scores were dropped and they calculated a GAI using just verbal and perceptual subtests, she was at 147 or 148, I believe. We still are not sure what is going on with her. Her achievement scores in school are wildly erratic as well -- 50s and 60s or 90s.

sounds quite similar, I was told she couldnt work out a gai for some reason.
I haven't determined the exceptionality?
I read an article;'gifted and vague' this fits him quite well.
he will have in an in depth discussion with a work colleague of mine, regarding a book he has read, then make really silly mistakes ie on stats and probablility.
have you found any suggestions.

For low psi, our psychologist recommended 'overlearning' in a particular subject as the best way to get faster at something. My dh asked about working to improve processing speed through other mental exercises, and would that carry over. The dr. indicated that this would not be the case. So, for math fact speed, study math facts, for word retrieval, study words. But this might only work if your child will put up with rote memorization exercises. We have looked to games which educate for some of this. Our ds8 hates the drudgery of anything that feels like studying. (Gee, I don't know where he gets that.)

Also, learning style can play a role in better retention/retrieval. Just last week he was to memorize the student creed at the new tae kwon do studio, and I was repeating it to him and asking him to repeat each sentence...slow going. Finally I just put the paper in front of him, he read it a couple times himself, and now he has it. Basically, once he sees something (eg: spelling words) he pretty well has it and can remember it. But auditory memory? Relatively weaker.
Put another way, visually he can learn something with 1-2 repetitions. Auditory learning seems to require a more normal number of repetitions 6-8.
Here is an interesting page I just found on learning style, figuring out your preferred learning style, etc.
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/Learning_Styles.html

I just thought of another tool that helped with more complex reading assignments. I downloaded CMap Tools (which is free) and it helps create a schematic map on your PC. In middle school, I gave him a reward if he could map his current humanities reading assignment. After a few times, he lost interest in the program, but I noticed he started creating these in his head. When he wanted extra privilidges he would offer to sketch out a map of today's reading. He was pretty quick too. LOL

Yes, our ds really enjoyed timezattack and this seemed to give him the confidence he needed to do pretty well with the tables this year - way way way better than the full-on disaster I was sort of dreading based on the arithmetic facts.

The CMap tool sounds very helpful!