Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Slow Processing, Can You Grow Out Of It?

sydness, I am personally not a fan of the term "slow processing speed". What you have in terms of quantifiable data for your dd (that is listed here) are significantly lower scores on some IQ subtests relative to others, and fluency achievement subtests. Each of these subtests require extremely discrete tasks, and when compared to other subtests can give wonderful insight into a child's strengths and challenges - but they don't paint the full picture, and looking at them without looking at academic performance, developmental history, and additional tests to determine why the scores are low really leaves you without much information. It sounds like you've had your dd tested through school (I apologize if I'm assuming this incorrectly - it's just a guess based on what you'r written). It's important to realize that when a school tests they are looking at impact on academics only, in many cases they are not going to recommend therapies/accommodations/remediation/etc for students who don't fall below a very low bar, and they are limited to giving the tests they need to prove/disprove a student qualifies for services. When they have that answer, they don't need to dive further to understand the *why*, the full life impact of a potential disability, or give you a long-term plan and insight into needs/impact, or make recommendations for private therapies. Schools are also often severely budget constrained and this impacts not only services but access to testing. Please know I'm not knocking school testing and schools in general in *any* way, just pointing out that you probably don't have all the answers that would be helpful in understanding what's going on with your dd.

If your dd had a neuropsych eval, chances are she would have had additional testing to determine why there is a relative dip in processing speed and fluency tests. Processing speed on the WISC and the related subtests on the WJ-III Cognitive Abilities test can be relatively low for a huge number of reasons. Things that neuropsychs typically would do in addition to those tests include an extended parent interview which would discuss things such as the things you've mentioned that look like ambidexterity. What you mention *might* be true ambidexterity, or it *might* mean your dd has never developed a right-vs-left dominance, and those are two slightly different things. The neuropsych would also run a test such as Beery VMI to determine if the dip in processing speed might be due to either visual motor challenges or fine motor challenges. He/she would also most likely be noting how your dd writes as she works through the testing, checking not only pencil grip but how she forms letters, are her efforts fluid and easy or slow and requiring a lot of mental effort.

I have no idea what's really up with your dd, but there are many things in your OP and replies that sound quite a bit like my ds, who has diagnoses of Developmental Coordination Disorder (Dyspraxia) and dysgraphia. In no way shape or form do I consider him to have "slow processing speed", so I'm going to list the similarities not as a suggestion that your dd has the same diagnoses, but as an example of why it's not always a good idea (from my perspective) to extrapolate that a person has "slow processing speed" to mean anything more than they have relatively low scores on "processing speed subtests". Hope that makes sense! When I read the term "slow processing speed" in a broader sense it seems ambiguous and suggests that it's thought the person is, in general, slow in a cognitive sense, which is not the case for many of the kids who have relatively slow ps subtest scores. Dysgraphia and DCD cause my ds to *write* slow, prevented him from developing automaticity of handwriting, cause awkward and slow movements in some respects, and cause him to appear to respond slowly in some instances. Some sports are beyond his coordination in huge ways, but he enjoys cross-country running, skiing, and riding bikes. He does not have a right-left-hand dominance, but he has always appeared to be right-handed. He was never interested in ballet, but his sisters both took ballet so I've sat through many a ballet class and I can promise you that thanks to that lack of hand dominance combined with some spatial awareness challenges due to DCD, he would have been able to participate but looked like the clumsy kid who just couldn't "get it"

So - I'm guessing you're wondering, will he ever "grow out of it"? No. But that's ok - DCD/dysgraphia are a piece of who he is but they don't define him. And they really aren't all that terribly challenging in many ways because... it's easy to *accommodate* for so much of it. The whole world we live in uses a keyboard for communication, rarely handwriting outside of school. DS and many dysgraphics start keyboarding as soon as they are diagnosed to bypass handwriting challenges. It doesn't mean they aren't taught how to use handwriting, it just means that it's acknowledged that it isn't a reliable form of communication for them. DS actually doesn't type all that quickly either due to his DCD, but it's not a struggle.

Do children grow out of dysgraphia? Not really, but it's not uncommon to see developmental growth around the same time puberty hits. The gotcha there is - neurotypical kids are also having developmental growth spurts around the same time, so no matter how much better things might seem for your individual child, it doesn't necessarily mean a child has "caught up" or that they aren't still impacted by dysgraphia. It's important to remember with dysgraphia in particular that even when handwriting looks great and grip is ok etc, the act of handwriting takes up most of a person's working memory, leaving little in-the-moment brain power left over for thinking about punctuation, grammar, or most importantly *ideas* and communicating full knowledge.

There are a few things that dysgraphic kids do tend to "outgrow" - they will eventually stop reversing letters, as your dd has, same thing happened with my ds, just very late compared to other children. He made a ton of math errors around 4-5 grade when he was first tasked with doing long division, large number multiplication, and multi-step math problems due to switching numbers and making frequent copy mistakes. He still does make some of those errors, but they've decreased dramatically in the past few years. You wrote:


That is not "slow processing speed" - that is classic dysgraphia.


Encouraging her to type is actually a good thing - it will give her a means to share her knowledge without struggling through lack of automaticity in handwriting. If she's dysgraphic, automaticity of handwriting is something she will likely never truly develop, and giving her handwriting accommodations is a good thing - it will enable her to fully participate in classes that are matched appropriately to her cognitive strengths. Accommodations aren't an "out", they are an aide. Would you send your dd to school without glasses or contact lenses if she had eyesight issues?


I disagree with this (please know I mean this with no disrespect!) - I think the best thing you can do for your dd right now is to get a proper diagnosis, understand what's really going on, and *you* (paired with professionals) figure out what she needs in terms of accommodations and remediation for the short term as well as put together a general idea of what she'll need for the longer term and for life, not just school. She needs you, at this age, to do that step for her, and in that way you'll be giving her the tools she needs to become her own best advocate as she matures. Teaching her to ask for help and to advocate for herself is important, but she's still just a kid and I think, at this point, neither of you really understands fully what's going on - and that's the first step to take, and it's a step that the adults in her life need to undertake.

Best wishes,

polarbear