My DS has slow processing speed. We used to speak, then count to 10 before expecting any kind of response for him. Now, he can pretty much have a normal speed conversation, but he cannot follow a fast paced discussion and will tune out. He has a "quick" mind when it comes to making connections and recognizing absurdities. But it seems to be the processing of the language that slows him down. He is also a very fast reader--up til about 4th grade, his teachers sometimes punished him, thinking he had not actually read the material because he was so fast. And they'd tell me how poor his skills were, etc.
He is also very quiet at school. School can be crazy with lots of things going on. My DS doesn't have ADHD, but I imagine if he had that super slow processing speed coupled with difficulty knowing what to focus on and what to tune out, it would be quite challenging.
My DS does have a 504. One thing it has on it is that he needs to be directly called on with a direct question if he is going to be graded on class participation-- discussions just move too fast for him to process, form a response, and raise his hand before the topic has moved on. Prior to his 504, he used to crumple up his math fact papers and his teacher quietly adjusted how she presented it to the class, making it untimed and unstressed. She did this on her own. But a 504 might have worked too.
Testing gave us that information for us to understand and years later, we were able to say to teachers-- no, he's actually listening and participating, he just can't go that fast-- which helped them not take it personally.
One other thing to consider is -- is the slow speed related to taking in, putting out, both? We know we have a taking in issue here. We know we have a handwriting putting out, and we wonder if we also have a speech putting out issue--pragmatic speech. Our neuropsych said no, but we still have to wonder sometimes when we see what he gleans from some of the literature (lol). Testing can help tease it all out--looking at memory in various forms-- my DS is horrible at names and faces and forms, but has excellent auditory memory. That's useful to know and we wouldn't know it without having had a complete battery of tests.
Were those tests expensive? Where did you go for them?
