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.

I am not sure if there is any correlation between processing speed and ADHD. MY DS9 is gifted and has adhd. I think you can be fast and not get things right or you can be fast and process things quickly and get things right. If that makes sense. Over all my son is fast and gets things right. However, his standardized testing isn't always consistant. They are always good but some are really good and some are just good if that makes sense. I think this is because of his ADHD not because he isn't processing well. Who knows its always a quesss. Below is a something I pulled from an ADHD / gifted book that I thought was interesting.


One characteristic of ADHD that does not have a counterpart in children who are gifted is variability of task performance. In almost every setting, children with ADHD tend to be highly inconsistent in the quality of their performance (i.e., grades, chores) and the amount of time used to accomplish tasks (Barkley, 1990). Children who are gifted routinely maintain consistent efforts and high grades in classes when they like the teacher and are intellectually challenged, although they may resist some aspects of the work, particularly repetition of tasks perceived as dull.


Good book though if you want more information on ADHD/gifted versus just adhd kids and just gifted kids is Different Minds by Deirdre V. Lovecky.

I LOVE THIS BOOK. Everything she writes about Gifted/ADHD just screams of my DS. It's like she followed him around, lol.

I currently have it signed out from our local library but have also added it to my Amazon shopping cart...

I love the book as well! It is right on for my DS9 too. It has been so nice to be able to read and better understand my son through this book. It has also explained many things that I see and have seen in testing and everday activity from him. I first purchased on my kindle but then decided to order from amazon so I could have a hard copy and highlight the pieces I wanted to. Just read it over last couple months. I wish I would have known about it about 2 or 3 years ago but better late then never.

I had fast processing speed as a kid and still do. I have never been tested so don't have any numbers. But I always finished 3-hour tests in under an hour and still scored the highest. As a working professional, speed helps me take on way more projects than my peers and deliver better quality as well as I have time to revisit my work before deadlines. I consider myself of slightly above average intelligence but speed helps me achieve more than what I would otherwise be capable of. So fast processing, IMHO, is a good thing:)

Yep!


Indeed-- THOUGH... with a kid like this, be very wary of efforts to "improve" performance since your child has "time" to "do a better job" on the work.

This happened to me as a child, and it also happened to my DD somewhat. "Slow down! Do a GOOD JOB. You're making mistakes that we KNOW that you can avoid if you just pay attention and slow down."

Well, okay, insisting on 100% accuracy is unrealistic for anyone. That's not even an acceptable thing in most adult occupations (obviously air traffic controllers, hostage negotiators, and neurosurgeons are excused now ).

While it may be true that "error-free" is within the grasp of someone who has a fast processing speed (because they can afford do the assigned task two or even four times over?) that kind of encourages an unhealthy set of OCD-like behaviors, first of all. How many times SHOULD one check over that written paragraph for grammatical errors? How many times is enough reworking of that physics problem?

Secondly, that is a doorway that you don't want to step through because it leads to the depths of task-avoidant perfectionism, or can. If the ONLY authentic challenge becomes finishing "error-free" then that can easily turn into a situation in which-- particularly with more subjective tasks like open-ended written work-- the child sees it as a no-win situation. Either they make no mistakes (whew! I didn't fail!) or they make mistakes (Oh no! I failed to meet my goal!). If they see earning 100% as improbable or impossible, they may simply refuse to do the task at all. There is certainly no REWARD for doing good work at a natural pace.

Having a good plan for what such a child should be permitted to do with her free time is a must, IMO. Also be prepared to push back from "perfect" with a teacher that argues that your child should "slow down" until the 100% marks start rolling in regularly, too. You want your child to LEARN from mistakes-- not "perfectly demonstrate what s/he already has mastery over." It's important not to confuse the two.

Thanks so much all - this has been interesting. Someone mentioned that she must have good fine motor skills since she is writing so much - but that is not the case at all... her letters are big and small and oddly spaced - really - not great... not even good - very average...and don't get me started on the spelling - but she will finish any writing assignment in 2 seconds flat - she is certainly not a perfectionist. I asked her how often it happens that she is finished with her work with nothing to do and she said that she is always finished way ahead of the other kids. She reads the books in her book box and when she is finished, she reads them again..and again. She has had no behavioral problems, and does not complain of the b-word. I always thought she was ADHD... but after being in her kindy for the morning and looking at some of the 5 year old boys, she seems pretty darn typical.

I would agree that having a fast processing speed is a good thing. I've always been very fast at whatever task was there- it took me years though to learn to slow down, read the question carefully; if you finish early, go back and check your answers again.
I'm gettig my kids to learn typing on Nessy Fingers (recommended on this chatsite!)- they had me do it and I can type 80 words per minute. I can write fast, etc.
It is super useful for getting home from work on time too.

I agree that having a fast processing speed is a good thing, but for some folks (my dd is one of them) it also means that you get so used to working fast that you don't slow down, and you might make silly mistakes - dd does this all the time. She almost never makes errors in calculations etc but she will sometimes miss an entire problem (ie, not do it) simply because she's speeding along and doesn't notice it, or she'll write down the opposite of what the question asked because she's reading fast, that kind of thing. So when you ask what other kids who are like this do when they finish their work, for our 3rd grader, we have her go back and re-check the work she just finished to make sure she didn't make any of those type of mistakes!

I also think it's not necessarily all "processing speed" at play - it's easy to think it's processing speed when a student (or adult) completes work really quickly, but it could be a different component of intelligence that's what's really up - could be working memory (my lightning-quick dd also has a relatively high WM), or it could be knowledge/thinking ability. My EG ds has a relatively low processing speed (as measured on IQ testing) and his WM is also lower than his VCI/PRI; he definitely doesn't write or output in any format quickly, and he needs extended time on math tests to show his work. But, otoh, he grasps new concepts exceptionally quickly, blaze through standardized tests amazingly quickly if he is able to answer on the computer and still get 99+%ile scores.

polarbear

Yeah, we have this too. She leaves problems blank by accident. Although maybe that's normal 8yo?


A good reminder. I'm working on this when looking over DD's work packets. This time she brought home a ton of 43/45, 10/11, 18/20, etc. In almost all cases, the points off were careless errors...but you know, just one or two. I know she could get 100% on almost all of it, but I congratulated her on a good packet of work." More importantly, there was no "I tanked this because I panicked/didn't read directions" work.

Indeed-- THOUGH... with a kid like this, be very wary of efforts to "improve" performance since your child has "time" to "do a better job" on the work.

This happened to me as a child, and it also happened to my DD somewhat. "Slow down! Do a GOOD JOB. You're making mistakes that we KNOW that you can avoid if you just pay attention and slow down."

Well, okay, insisting on 100% accuracy is unrealistic for anyone. That's not even an acceptable thing in most adult occupations (obviously air traffic controllers, hostage negotiators, and neurosurgeons are excused now ).

While it may be true that "error-free" is within the grasp of someone who has a fast processing speed (because they can afford do the assigned task two or even four times over?) that kind of encourages an unhealthy set of OCD-like behaviors, first of all. How many times SHOULD one check over that written paragraph for grammatical errors? How many times is enough reworking of that physics problem?

Secondly, that is a doorway that you don't want to step through because it leads to the depths of task-avoidant perfectionism, or can. If the ONLY authentic challenge becomes finishing "error-free" then that can easily turn into a situation in which-- particularly with more subjective tasks like open-ended written work-- the child sees it as a no-win situation. Either they make no mistakes (whew! I didn't fail!) or they make mistakes (Oh no! I failed to meet my goal!). If they see earning 100% as improbable or impossible, they may simply refuse to do the task at all. There is certainly no REWARD for doing good work at a natural pace.


Thank you for posting this. I had an ah ha moment. I can be a little OCD and perfectionist. So this was good for me to read.

My DS does often make silly mistakes because he doesn't read carefully. So it can be frustrating for me as a "perfectionist" because I know he could miss zero if he slowed down. Part of his issue though is trying focused on the longer tests. (ADHD). I agree though the goal should not always be 100 percent. I am going to remember this!!!!! I only find myself thinking 100 is the goal on my DS that is gifted. I don't expect it from my other DS who isn't. What I have always said is I expect them to try there best. I guess when I see the silly errors I wonder if he is "trying" his best. If he slowed down it would help. I can usually tell what he would miss because he didn't know it and what he missed because he went to fast. However I like how you said we should be ok with them learning from mistakes and not expect no errors. Errors make you human!!!

Go forward I'm going to try and remember this. I will add that even if I find myself setting a goal of 100 for him i NEVER say that to him. When he brings home something and he misses 1 and he asks if it is good I always say yes you did great. I do though point out the silly errors to him but not every time!

Yep, sounds familiar. I was that guy who could work through a complex trig problem, hit all the operations exactly right, and end up with the wrong answer because somewhere along the line I didn't carry a one, or slipped in a 9 / 3 = 2.

What's interesting is that this could happen whether I slowed down or not. And checking my answers had a less than 50% chance of catching it, because I had already laid the path to the wrong answer, and it was all too easy for my brain to follow it again.

So yeah... going fast doesn't quite explain it for me. I think it's more of a forest over trees type thing. I just don't notice the details sometimes.

The most effective method for me to catch errors is to stay at my normal pace, but use some time after to check the answer using a different process.

That's the method that seems to work best for my DD, as well, Dude.

"Slowing down" doesn't help-- except that it can exacerbate her anxiety over perfectionism.

FWIW, I just wanted to clarify what I'd posted about having my dd who makes careless errors because she flies through work at warp speed and doesn't notice things - we aren't asking her to check and re-check her work. I do think it's reasonable (and a good habit to get into) to check your work once over, and I don't think checking once is going to turn a non-perfectionist child into a perfectionist. Although it's next to impossible to achieve 100% in any type of endeavor (realistically) the reality is that in the working world it *is* important to check your work - would you not want to be sure you had the correct prescription when you pick it up? Would you want the engineer who designed the building your office is up on not to double-check to make sure he didn't accidentally drop a digit somewhere before you ride the elevator up to the 10th floor? Maybe it's the profession I'm in, but checking work once is routine. And way back in school... we don't want to think it, but grades do count and test scores do count, and checking our work once helps - for most kids. (Not necessarily my dysgraphic kid but that's another thread entirely :))

polarbear

To some degree, you have to learn how to engage while you check. If If DD "checks" herself, I think she just runs her eyes over it all. If I see a mistake, though, usually all I have to say is "Look at this one again," and she's like, "OH! Duh," and fixes it.