Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment working memory questions

Is low working memory the cause of issues like ADHD and dyslexia, or a result of the person having ADHD or dyslexia?

Can you improve working memory? How?

Are low working memory scores usually indicitive of ADHD?

Ir a child has low working memory, what will that look like academically?

Thanks!

Bump...can someone take a stab at this? Please?

Hi, interesting question, I really don't have experience with that, have you read this?

http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/workout.aspx

Here's another link:

http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/confessions-of-limited-working-memory.html

I found the comment about interest based learning helpful.

I don't know the answer to your question, except that I've seen working memory discussed with regard to adhd.

I have a ds7 who "looks" like he has attention issues (difficulty paying attention) and also dyslexia-type issues (language processing problem - difficulty with reading comprehension and making inferences, among other things - along with history of speech delay and SPD/possible auditory processing issues). However, he does NOT have a problem with working memory, at least according to his most recent WISC results - working memory was his highest section LOL. He does have a significantly slow processing speed. My latest attempt to work on the attention angle includes nutritional supplements - I was looking into vitamin and mineral deficiencies related to adhd and came up with magnesium, zinc and B6. So far, they seem to help some aspects (e.g., getting dressed with no reminders instead of 8,000 reminders) but not others (he's still very "bouncy" - needs to move, quite dramatically sometimes, in order to think). Sometimes it seems as though there's a switch that needs to be flipped in his brain so that the energy going to his body can be re-routed to his brain LOL, and I just need to figure out how to do that. In testing, his psych also noticed the attention issue but we haven't gotten around to pursuing it further yet. That was a few months ago; I think the nutritional supplements are helping enough, for the moment.

The trouble with adhd is that other issues may look like adhd but aren't. There ought to be a list somewhere of other things to rule out - the Eides' book would be a good start though it's been awhile since I looked in it.

Eema, do you know any more about this memory/content connection? I've been curious about working memory for quite a while now as DS then 6, score 9 on letter number sequencing but 19 on Arithmetic on the wisc iv test. His processing speed was the other area that didn't 'fit', it was very average.

I don't know a thing about this, but our local gifted group is hosting a talk on this topic tonight. The announcement says:

"Working Memory: The last decade has seen amazing progress in understanding the core cognitive deficit in ADHD. We will review what working memory is, and how inadequate working memory capacity is the primary source of impaired potential in people with ADHD. As we discuss the impact of inadequate working memory on higher level executive skills, we will move beyond the view of ADHD as a disorder of focus and impulsivity.

Then we will review groundbreaking research begun at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, and independently validated at leading research institutions. This is the research that disproved the conventional wisdom that working memory could not be changed and that therefore ADHD could not truly be treated."