Slow Processing

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You dont have to really worry now, but it is good to know and work on. My sons OT said this slow procesing time would present a problem with the standardized state testing. I am assuming by then my son will need to have something written that he gets extra time, or isnt timed for the tests.

My son is homeschooled, but if he were in school, there would have to be accomidations made for sure!

Some people need to take this advise at the factory - literally. When it comes to offsets, I tend to take my time, so as to reduce the number of potential rejected parts.


My workmates have finally learned to speak AND use hand gestures we have mutually decided to represent a specific action or task when they are telling me something. Human speech for me is generally nothing more than a garbled mess of nonsensical noise.

We teach ourselves. Don't overemphasize the basics, or they'll overwhelm more complex mental constructs already in the making. Allegedly my processing speed lags somewhere distantly behind my IQ, vocabulary and technical abilities. You might do well to look at you son having this as his primary defecit as an advantage.

A recent, applicable musing of mine; If a thought is finished by the time you say it, it wasn't a proper thought to begin with.

I have experiance of being a child with slow processing, and the most I could really say is pushing too hard or blaming them for it should certainly be avoided. For instance less imput whether sensory or mental stress like too much to think about or decide on might over stress him. Sometimes people think the person is just being immature or whining or whatever when they get upset over what seems to be normal stress but a lot of times it's just too much to handle at once so it's important to keep that in mind. Maybe have a plan to reduce the overload like a quiet place he can go to mellow out, or maybe dim the lights and quiet things down if possible(maybe not if there are no sensory issues) but at least give them some space like don't keep pushing the issue if they're getting overwhelmed by it. Though even with the best of efforts the overload is still going to happen sometimes regardless.

Also, sometimes their pace might be slower than what is normal or expected, so urging them to try harder and go faster too much can be detrimetnal as then they might feel like no matter how hard they try it's never good enough. Gentle encouragement tends to be the best approach at least in my opinion. Oh and another thing that always bothered me as a kid, when people informed me 'you're smart/not stupid so you should be able to ....... ' being smart has nothing to do with how fast your brain can process information, smartness does not speed that up.

I used to get, "You're so smart, why can't you tie your own shoes." As a six year old kid, I had no idea how to explain, but intelligence and the ability to read far above my "age level" were not the same things as being able to develop motor skills. I'm still not that great at tying my shoes, even if I can fake it. I think I might have learned, eventually, if everyone hadn't been all over my case. Even now, when I think about it, I get that sick, hollow, nervous feeling in my stomach. At this point, that's what keeps me from focusing enough to learn how to do it right.