I have an extremely bright (WISC scores: VCI 98th percentile and PRI 99th percentile) 6th grade student who is plagued by extremely slow processing. The quality of his work in all subjects is excellent when he is not overwhelmed by keeping up during class and with his homework load. His slow rate of production is seen across domains and tasks. We are working on accommodations to help him both in class and at home. However, we also want to begin some interventions to help him develop more efficient production. He is diagnosed with and on medication for ADD - inattentive type. I am working with him to determine whether internal distractibility is still contributing to his difficulty, but all indications so far are that this is not a significant source of his trouble. Can anyone offer suggestions for helping this frustrated boy increase his processing speed and rate of production?
I have a student struggling with the very same thing. We opted to go without medication for now, and are focusing on accommodations. Because this student is a high schooler, we use books on tape rather than reading large amounts of material. Otherwise, the student would not be able to keep up with the workload. In this student’s situation, it seems that the reading is especially problematic. While he has the decoding and fluency skills, the processing is so slow that reading wears him out. It is not a lack of effort but that seemingly typical workloads require tremendous effort. He would shut down without that help.
Ann
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