What makes someone identify processing speed as being low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't understand why FSIQ would not be considered an accurate representation. In our test, neuropsych felt that FSIQ could be considered accurate measure. My child's processing speed is a bit lower than OP with FSIQ one point higher.

What was explained to me is that the deviation between ability and scores is what matters. That's what we are discussing with school.

Can you explain this to me please or elaborate more on what this means?

Most special education evaluations involve 4 primary components--a speech/language eval, a psychological eval, an educational eval, and a social history. The psychological evaluation involves assessments that measure a student's ability--their IQ, their intellectual strengths and possible areas of challenge (verbal, analytical, critical thinking, etc).

The educational assessments measure what a student has learned--their academic achievement, or the academic knowledge that they can demonstrate.

Both scores are compared to peers of the same age or grade level. If the ability scores significantly higher than the achievement scores, there is a question as to why the student is not performing better in school. When ability (IQ, intellectual ability) scores are average or above, but the student is failing or struggling in school, there may be a learning disability or some other issue preventing them from applying that ability to school tasks.

Many school districts are moving away from a strict discrepancy model for eligibility, however, and choose to include a variety of measures to determine eligibility, such as work samples, observations, behavior ratings, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it a number or a number in relation to other numbers? My DD has a processing speed in 73%. Doesn't seem low to me but I guess in relation to her other scores it is. Is a 109 processing speed low (even though it's above average) when subtests are 139 and FSIQ is 132?

It's not that the processing speed is low-- it's that it's low in comparison to the reasoning (GAI) scores.

My DS has a processing speed of 120 and a GAI of 146. We deal with processing as a problem because his performance is much slower than his reasoning. It causes frustration to think much faster than to perform. The IQ subtests are not independent of one another-- a 139 reasoning and a 109 processing will interplay.
What is really hard is when a person's processing is borderline or low (think scores in the 80s) and reasoning is in the 130s or 140s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a number or a number in relation to other numbers? My DD has a processing speed in 73%. Doesn't seem low to me but I guess in relation to her other scores it is. Is a 109 processing speed low (even though it's above average) when subtests are 139 and FSIQ is 132?

It's not that the processing speed is low-- it's that it's low in comparison to the reasoning (GAI) scores.

My DS has a processing speed of 120 and a GAI of 146. We deal with processing as a problem because his performance is much slower than his reasoning. It causes frustration to think much faster than to perform. The IQ subtests are not independent of one another-- a 139 reasoning and a 109 processing will interplay.
What is really hard is when a person's processing is borderline or low (think scores in the 80s) and reasoning is in the 130s or 140s.

Well, it seems to me sometimes there's a problem and sometimes there's not. I have a DC with GAI of 144 and processing speed of 94 (34%). I'm bracing myself for the frustration he's supposed to show but so far nothing. Why isn't my child frustrated? Dammit, he's supposed to be!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a number or a number in relation to other numbers? My DD has a processing speed in 73%. Doesn't seem low to me but I guess in relation to her other scores it is. Is a 109 processing speed low (even though it's above average) when subtests are 139 and FSIQ is 132?

It's not that the processing speed is low-- it's that it's low in comparison to the reasoning (GAI) scores.

My DS has a processing speed of 120 and a GAI of 146. We deal with processing as a problem because his performance is much slower than his reasoning. It causes frustration to think much faster than to perform. The IQ subtests are not independent of one another-- a 139 reasoning and a 109 processing will interplay.
What is really hard is when a person's processing is borderline or low (think scores in the 80s) and reasoning is in the 130s or 140s.

Yep, that's my child. Reasoning in 130s and processing speed low 70s. It's painful.

[Anonymous]

What do people do to increase processing speed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do people do to increase processing speed?

As far as I can tell, nothing except accommodate and teach them to advocate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a number or a number in relation to other numbers? My DD has a processing speed in 73%. Doesn't seem low to me but I guess in relation to her other scores it is. Is a 109 processing speed low (even though it's above average) when subtests are 139 and FSIQ is 132?

It's not that the processing speed is low-- it's that it's low in comparison to the reasoning (GAI) scores.

My DS has a processing speed of 120 and a GAI of 146. We deal with processing as a problem because his performance is much slower than his reasoning. It causes frustration to think much faster than to perform. The IQ subtests are not independent of one another-- a 139 reasoning and a 109 processing will interplay.
What is really hard is when a person's processing is borderline or low (think scores in the 80s) and reasoning is in the 130s or 140s.

What does this mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do people do to increase processing speed?

As far as I can tell, nothing except accommodate and teach them to advocate.

I was told we can't get accommodations unless it affects her academics and because she does well NOW, no accommodations. It's frustrating. She does well because school is easy and well is relative. She bombs timed tests. Comes in around 70% when she knows the stuff and should be getting 90% and up. I was basically told unless she's failing, no 504. Does that sound right???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do people do to increase processing speed?

As far as I can tell, nothing except accommodate and teach them to advocate.

I was told we can't get accommodations unless it affects her academics and because she does well NOW, no accommodations. It's frustrating. She does well because school is easy and well is relative. She bombs timed tests. Comes in around 70% when she knows the stuff and should be getting 90% and up. I was basically told unless she's failing, no 504. Does that sound right???

Depending on her scores, I think you could easily argue for a 504 for extended testing time. A limit to the number of homework problems required to demonstrate proficiency. Breaks. I'm not sure you'll get an IEP now. It obviously is affecting her academics if she's losing points on timed tests. We ultimately left the public schools. The basic message was my child will fail in middle school and then she'd qualify. I didn't want to wait around for that to happen. Save all of those bombed timed tests as evidence and ask for another meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do people do to increase processing speed?

As far as I can tell, nothing except accommodate and teach them to advocate.

I was told we can't get accommodations unless it affects her academics and because she does well NOW, no accommodations. It's frustrating. She does well because school is easy and well is relative. She bombs timed tests. Comes in around 70% when she knows the stuff and should be getting 90% and up. I was basically told unless she's failing, no 504. Does that sound right???

Depending on her scores, I think you could easily argue for a 504 for extended testing time. A limit to the number of homework problems required to demonstrate proficiency. Breaks. I'm not sure you'll get an IEP now. It obviously is affecting her academics if she's losing points on timed tests. We ultimately left the public schools. The basic message was my child will fail in middle school and then she'd qualify. I didn't want to wait around for that to happen. Save all of those bombed timed tests as evidence and ask for another meeting.

I'm so jealous. We're in the weird spot where we can't really afford private school but we don't qualify for financial aid. I'm glad you were able to make that choice and thank you for your advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a number or a number in relation to other numbers? My DD has a processing speed in 73%. Doesn't seem low to me but I guess in relation to her other scores it is. Is a 109 processing speed low (even though it's above average) when subtests are 139 and FSIQ is 132?

It's not that the processing speed is low-- it's that it's low in comparison to the reasoning (GAI) scores.

My DS has a processing speed of 120 and a GAI of 146. We deal with processing as a problem because his performance is much slower than his reasoning. It causes frustration to think much faster than to perform. The IQ subtests are not independent of one another-- a 139 reasoning and a 109 processing will interplay.
What is really hard is when a person's processing is borderline or low (think scores in the 80s) and reasoning is in the 130s or 140s.

Well, it seems to me sometimes there's a problem and sometimes there's not. I have a DC with GAI of 144 and processing speed of 94 (34%). I'm bracing myself for the frustration he's supposed to show but so far nothing. Why isn't my child frustrated? Dammit, he's supposed to be!

I'm a slow processor, and I don't actually remember being frustrated as a kid. I remember teachers being frustrated with me, but I just didn't understand why they expected me to be able to do things I clearly couldn't do. We would have these horrible flashcard contests where two kids competed to see who could solve a mental math problem the fastest. College was easier for me than high school, and my Ph.D. program was really intellectually challenging, but in a great way. Looking back I can see how completely perplexed I was by things like worksheet and rote memorization, because I don't think that way. If I want to remember a piece of information, I have to place it within some sort of conceptual framework-then I can go back and find it when I need it-if that makes sense. And all that thinking takes time that you don't often get in school as a kid.