Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Procedural Memory

I just found out that a family member has a child with problems in the area of procedural memory. He is very bright middle schooler. When he was recently tested it was found that he could do math problems when presented orally with no trouble at all but when he was expected to solve the same problem with pen and pencil, he couldn't do it. Has anyone had experience helping children with procedural memory issues.

My first reaction is that this is a misuse of the term "procedural memory." Procedural memory means any "how" knowledge. It includes how to ride a bike, how to twist a jar lid the correct direction to put it on vs. take it off, how to play the piano, how to hit a baseball, . . . well, you get the idea.

In absence of any other evidence of a disorder, I would say they've found that he has a problem with . . . doing math on paper. Period. Maybe the pencil-and-paper techniques just haven't "clicked" for him so he's always done the problems in his head. Maybe he just needs extra instruction in the specific techniques.

But further testing might show that he does have a broader problem. For instance, does he have problems with reading symbols? Or seeing that things line up in a column?

But without that extra evidence, I would say that calling this a problem with "procedural memory," or any other broader thing, is just not warranted.

From what I understand, procedural memory also has to do with the automaticity of performing the tasks. Right now, I don't know much as we have just heard about this. I am sure there will be further testing but I was just trying to learn a little more about it. There is a connection between Tourettes and this type of problem so I expect it may be a correct diagnosis.

I was hoping someone familiar with this problem might have some suggestions for resources to better help us to understand this. Thanks for your quick response.

I have a 12 year old son diagnosed with dyspraxia and dysgraphia last year and he is similar. He seems to be really good at remembering the procedure for figuring out answers mentally even though he was not taught the procedure for doing it mentally and I certainly wouldn't call it standard procedure for finding the answers, but it works for him. He can come often come up with the answers faster than I can using pencil and paper on problems that I can't even do without pencil and paper. Sometimes I wish I could be more like him and not so dependent on pencil and paper, yet I realize he has a type of ld that he will have to work around and he will have to figure it out on his own.

My son had problems with visual motor integration and it was frustrating for him to do pencil and paper tasks and he never really developed automaticity in writing out math problems so he is slow at this. I think my son has some kind of a visual processing difference even though it doesn't seem possible when he was able to read without being taught at 2 1/2 and he has always been very good at remembering how difficult words are spelled even after only seeing the words once or twice.

We use "Life of Fred" for math because it doesn't require a lot of written math and because my son likes it, he is learning to work around his difficulties.

Thanks Lori. I'll pass on the information about Life of Fred. I have heard of that program before but never looked into it.