Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Article on processing speed - sound right?

Squishys the tricky thing about low processing speed scores is that they aren't always accurate. Sometimes a low score reflects perfectionism more than actually being slow, or in my DDs case a personality that refuses to do boring repetitive tasks. Which is why, when you see a low processing score you should be asking whehter it matches the child and often also do other tests that will show whether there is a clear pattern or not.

I don't think of my DD as being fast at all, in fact she drives me up the wall with how slowly she likes to move through life. But I am sure that in part she does that just to annoy me and I am equally sure that her low processing score was not accurate. Yes a correct score for her would likely lower than her VCI, but not two SDs.

If you see a child with a low processing speed score that really does reflect a problem, there is more than one problem that can lead to low processing speed and what the problem is exactly might lead to different signs. The processing speed tests on the WISC are very visual/motor based. The child might think/work slowly, they might have a visual problem, a motor problem, a visual motor problem or some combination there of... a child with only a motor problem will have different every day struggles than a child with only a visual problem, and different again than a child with more of a combination problem.