Slow Processing

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Does anyone have any experience with this. I was told that my 4yo ASD son has slow processing, but is very smart. He is a communication delay (I was told it's communication and not speech). Do you have any experience or advice about teaching a child like this?

My son has slow processing. I'm not sure there is much to do other than recognize it; it is completely separate from "smarts." When they told me about it with my son, I realized that I have slow processing, and I liken it to living life at 50 miles an hour while everyone else is moving at 55 or 60. It doesn't mean he has to think more, it means that everything he does is simply at a slower speed. For me, that extends to how long it takes to go through the motions in a grocery store line, how fast my reactions are to things around me when I'm driving, how long it takes me to get my work done in the office; things like that. I can still sort through new and complex material at what seems to others like lightening speed, since that is a function of IQ, but I take longer to do "normal" things. And so does my son.

Does that help at all?

Did they say what kind of processing? --- My son has slow auditory processing, meaning that sometimes I will be into the next sentence before his brain "hears" what I told him a sentence ago. I don't know if that is what they mean, but I talk slowly to him and pause often when I talk. I will also repeat myself when I think I need to.

My daughter was diagnosed when she was 15. Psychologist said same thing. She made it through school up until high school with mostly As and some Bs. She was in advanced classes in middle school. In high school she started out in IB classes (advanced level). Due to absences, stress and depression she barely made Ds and Bs. This year (she's a junior and 16) she has regular classes and getting As except a B in advanced math. She's completed Algebra I and II and Geometry already. The psychologist report said she'd do best in untimed situations. Her processing speed may be slower but she manages fine under timed tests.. she'd just do better with untimed or situations where she is not under pressure or feels singled out. Don't pressure or rush him and if he is very smart I'm sure he'll do really well at school. Pay attention to social situations that may affect his performance. Kids on the spectrum tend to get bullied. There is also possibility of feeling overwhelmed by everything going on in a school environment. Example... my daughter doesn't like pep rallies due to the noise. I feel many times if there is a change in academic performance there are social/emotional problems affecting it.

Thanks for all your replies and examples.

The example they gave is that they will ask him a question like, "what is this?" while holding up a lion, he will have to think about it for a more than average amount of time to answer, even though he knows the right answer. If they then ask the question "what is this? is it a lion or a bear?" he can answer instantaneously. We have been working on these types of questions (amongst others) in ST. He loves being complimented or playing with something after he gets the right answer so he is highly motivated to answer the questions.

I was told to work on this with him at home also. I was just curious about any other approaches that anyone else has tried which seemed promising.

My son has a similar issue with open ended questions, verbal and written. He can identify things and answer multiple choice questions alright, but if you give him an open ended choice of foods to eat or something, he always asks me to give him choices to narrow it down. I mainly have him practice doing it. He has a lot of trouble with essay questions at school, too. I bet it is related. It is just hard to work without prompts sometimes.

Having him practice identifying thing sounds on point. I bet there are also timed video games online that could help you with that, too, as long as they are for preschoolers and are lenient with the time it takes to "type" the name. I can't think of any URLs right now, but someone may be able to chime in.

Although I don't pretend to know what the "experts" consider slow processing - and I freely admit I have no way of knowing what's actually going on in your son's mind - I am not sure without further evidence I would consider this slow processing. I say this because I can react in this way, and it is not that I'm processing the object or the name of it more slowly - I'm processing more. Example: "What name / category am I supposed to use in this test? Lion? Feline? Predator? King of the Beasts? Big Cat? Animal?" whereas if they ask if it is a lion or a bear "Oh, well, then they want me to call it a lion".

This is partially a result of the inherent confusion I have because so many of my responses are not what is expected, so even when the answer is "obvious" I wonder if there's a hidden trap. And, yes, I tend to see more options than most people. I actually managed to convince a pretty demanding eighth grade teacher my answer was at least as good as, and possibly better than, the one in the teacher's manual... On the other hand, when it comes to things like filing - or even tagging, which is more flexible - and then figuring out what label I used, I can tie my own mind in knots.

But my point is, if this is what is happening with your son, then it makes a huge difference as to what's actually going on inside his mind. His ability to process may seem slow to someone who takes for granted there is only one "obvious" answer, but if he feels he has to not only identify the object, but then evaluate the context of the situation in order to guess which of many answers might be expected in this case, then his problem is not processing speed but the fact that he sees more choices which must be processed.

I didnt read thru the replies but my DS is like this. He has slow processing speed but it has nothing to do with his intelligence. Just as your son, he KNOWS the answer, it just takes him longer to process the Q to figure out what you are asking. He is terrible with open ended questions, like "tell me what you did over vacation". But if you say, "I hear you went to see a move over break, how was it?" He will go on and on about the movie.

I actually ad a thread here a while back. My son couldnt describe a tree if I said tell me waht a tree looks like. BUT if I said, see that tree in our yard? Can you tell me what it looks like? He is fine. He has retrieval issues, as well as understanding or filtering out what is important in an open ended queston. We work on this daily. His OT has noted that it takes him MUCH longer to complete a task then peers. He gets it all right but it takes him longer. His processing speed on his psychological was a good 20 points lower then his verbal and info scores, which is a HUGE discrepancey. And that was simply casue the test was all timed. He got it all correct but it took him much longer to process the info.

hang in there, it is a long road and its an ongoing process!

What TheWanderer says makes a lot of sense to me. I have issues with auditory processing. It is worse with background noise, me being tired, or sometimes particular voices. It often feels like I am having to translate what I am hearing into something that my brain can process, and then see my answer and translate it into words. I think that's why it seems worse some times than others. Background noise, etc. gives me more to process and being tired just makes me slower in general. If I was having trouble processing the words being given a choice for an answer wouldn't make me translate faster unless maybe the person allowed for a nod or point or a stock answer like yes/no to go with one of the choices. But that is just me, and just dealing with auditory processing.

My experience with slow processing is smilar to MiahClone, though I don't have the feeling of having to translate what I am hearing. It just takes longer. In fact it is probably my most immediately noticeable AS characteristic. Several people have commented that I really think about what I am saying. They don't realize that thinking time is how long it takes for my brain to decipher what I am hearing and formulate a response. For some reason I am much worse on the phone and occasionally people ask if I'm still on the line if it takes me a bit longer than normal to process something.

In one to one conversation I don't notice it though the other person usually does. However it really causes problems in group conversations. By the time I have worked out that there is a suitable gap in the conversation for me to say something, it is too late and someone else had filled that gap.

Several years ago I worked for an electronics company. One of their products was designed by a retired university professor who lived a couple of hundred miles away. Whenever I phoned him with a technical enquiry he sounded very vague at first then you could almost hear his brain going into gear and his replies started getting quicker and more detailed. I always put it down to his age (he was about 70). After I found out about AS and started paying more attention to my speech patterns, I was rather startled to discover I do exactly the same thing!

I don't know what you mean by slow processing but I had a speech delay but my mom never worried about it.

theWanderer thanks for that post. It makes a lot of sense. My son often has unusual replies to questions, which after I think about for a sec I have to agree are correct answers, just not the expected NT answer. The idea that he might be trying to work out which answer to give among many possible right answers is one I hadn't thought of before.

Thanks for the feedback. You guys have given me so much information about this. I feel I can bring more to the table when I talk to the ST.

theWanderer, that's a very different angle to look at it. Once his communication improves, I am going to see if he can explain that he sees things in multiple categories. There are things he can immediately identify but I don't know if that's from memory (that was the answer he gave the last time we agreed) or practice made him answer faster.

Today with the ST, he was working on words like "on, over, under, in, out" etc. He was also working on "he him, her, she" et. He really struggled with this. He frequently said, "The car is in the floor, or chair or table". The titles for girls and boys on the picture was also pretty random. He is able to identify who is a boy or girl in his family and extended family but was not consistent with the pictures.

Do I need to show him a lot of pictures of males and females for him to see a pattern? What about spatial understanding. Does anyone have any experience with this?

My daughter and I both have slow processing speed. I notice it more when changing task. E.g. I'm thinking about X, my husband asks me a question, I have to stop thinking X, replay the words he has just spoken, think of what that means (which might involve visualising the idea, even if he has just asked me if I want a cup of tea), then I need to think of my answer and how to respond. I'll obviously do that quicker, if I'm not already engrossed in something. The problem arises, if he asks me again and I'm half way through the thinking process. His words interfere with my thinking and I have to start all over again. I might even ask his to repeat what he has just said, so he'll have to say it a third time. By this time, he might even be a little annoyed and I have to process his tone of voice and my reaction to it, as well as the initial question. If he just gives a few seconds, after asking the question in the first place, I'll answer a little slower than most, but not annoyingly so. This does not impact on intelligence. I take longer to think, but my answers are usually correct.

I have the same problem. Daddy taught me to deal with it pretty well when he said, "We're smart, chickie, but we're not quick. You and me do our best when we take our time."

That's saved me a lot of mistakes and stupid decisions-- As the carpenter says, "Measure twice, cut once."

It doesn't help much with people getting impatient and telling me I'm stupid, holding out, taking time to think up the lie I want, not listening, and et cetera.

There are all kinds of things you can do to help him process-- talk slow, give examples, pause often, check for understanding, be willing to repeat.

There's not much you can do about the fact that we live in a world that prizes quickness over correctness. They want it fast and right-- but if they have to choose, they want it fast. I don't know what to do on that score. Lately, I've been reduced to telling my son, rather unkindly, what others will think of him for not being quick, and hoping that will at least prompt him to be quiet and still and try to stay out of sight. It does absolutely no favors for his estimation of himself-- that's how I was raised and at 35 I treat the assumption that I'm the s**t on the bottom of the world's shoe as a foregone conclusion-- but I'm hoping that it might, as it did for Daddy and me, at least help keep him out of trouble.

Thanks guys, for your responses. MomofPenut, the example you gave about yoirself, I have had that same experience with my husband. He is NT but marches to his own beat. I instinctly wait to ask him a question when he is doing something else because he takes too long to switch from one thing to the other. I am different in that I always have a few stream of thoughts going on at the same time. My son sometimes seem like an extreme version of my husband.

I absolutely prefer something being done correct even though I also value speed. I would prefer my son to be correct and slow so that is the angle we will be approaching this with. At home he is not rushed but when he eventually starts elementary school, I will make sure that they understand he will need extra time for his lessons and tests.

Regarding his spacial issues? Are you familiar with this? Does this come down to just practice?