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DS 16 was recently tested and we learned he has a very slow processing speed. How do you accommodate that in homeschooling? English and History are the two subjects I'm most unsure of. Not sure if I should use a Jr High curriculum or a HS curriculum with modifications. I've schooled him for a few years now, and this diagnosis makes sense--in hindsight. Reading-intensive programs always seem to take him twice as long as the suggested pace.

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What were his other diagnoses?

 

My dd has a low processing speed, but for her the ADHD (her actual label) is much more problematic.  Did they give him a reading disorder label because of his reading issues?

 

Have they finished his evaluation report to give you more information on IQ, other diagnoses, discrepancies, etc.?  I'd be surprised if they don't give you advice on vocations, guidance for his future, etc.  

 

The academics question depends on what the cause is and how much discrepancy there is.  I think you have to do the right thing for YOUR child for his situation.  He's at an age where you start to think seriously about vocations, what he's headed for with graduation, etc.

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My main questions is how does that low processing pressent. What struggles are you trying to help? Is it "sink in time"? Short lessons? What does it look like and how are you trying to figure out to handle it.

 

An example is for my son with low processing, he needs major sink in time (as in teach a concept and it won't be useable information for a week). So I always look ahead a week and overview what we are going to do next week. In bartons I do the "new" lesson section for lesSoN 4 on Monday, and he watches as I am teaching myself. Then we do the lesson 3 as planned for that week. The next week it won't be new and he will have a peg for that information to stick to. For science and history we watch a video of what we will be learning the next week.. again..To preload the topic and give his mind some time to create a peg on which vocabulary and events can sit on. I wish I had more ideas for English.

 

Sorry my brain is overloaded today and I just don't have the tecnical terms, I think my husband will kill me if I refer to one more thing as a thingy...

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Lee, that's fascinating the way you're connecting processing speed and your teaching!  With ds I call it seeding.  I try to sow the seed of a thought and then come back later to water it and see if it will grow into something.  So I might so seeds weeks advance, hoping that he'll notice patterns and think on it, then be ready to work with it when we actually formally cover it.

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Thanks for the advice!  Here's some info from his eval:

 

Verbal Comprehension = High Average

Perceptual Reasoning and Working Memory = Average

Processing Speed = 4th percentile = "Borderline"

Full Scale IQ = "47th percentile" = Average

 

On the Working Memory, however, he was in the 25th percentile for Digit Span, while 75th for Arithmetic.  Those combined/averaged out to 50; therefore "Average."

 

Processing Speed Subtests Symbol Search and Coding were both 5th percentile rank.  

 

He was in public school through 5th grade and we didn't notice any problems.  In homeschooling, I've always thought he moved slow, but I thought he wasn't applying himself.  We got him tested because we got the idea he might be on the autism spectrum due to other behaviors.  Never expected to find a learning issue, but it seems to make sense, in hindsight.  He is indeed on the spectrum, although "highly-functioning".  Their comments regarding the processing speed is that he "may need additional time to process new information.  This may mean that he will benefit from extended time with school work, as well as a few extra moments in conversation to process what is being discussed."  Observing him myself, I see that he has a difficult time reading wordy textbooks and literature that is not modern English.  It takes him FOREVER.  Like three or four times as long as the curriculum is written for.  

 

I'm not sure if "seeding" is something I will need to start working on with him. That would certainly take some planning ahead on my part, but it is an interesting idea.  Seems like a spiral method would work well in those situations, right? 

 

I've already modified most of his classes in a way that seems to be working for him, but I'm not sure how to handle English and History.  We used Beautiful Feet this year (Medieval History Sr. High) and last (Early American and World History), but I think he needs shorter, simpler, question and answer lessons, unfortunately.  Before we got the test results, I purchased Lifepacs for 11th Grade English, but now that I'm looking at them, I think they're going to be way too wordy for him.  I liked having all of English in one curriculum, so I chose that; but I think it will be a bad fit.

 

I am planning for him to study American History, starting after Revolutionary War and leading up to modern times, if possible.  So American Lit is what I'm looking at as well.  I'm considering some of the booklets from the Focus on U.S. History series -- Cathy Duffy said, "If you have a student who struggles with all the reading required in a typical textbook and needs a more interactive way to learn history, you might want to use this series of books as a stand alone resource. It's one of the few such series that I think would work in this fashion. The information is not "dumbed down" as you often find for struggling students. Instead the content has been condensed."

 

 

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Is it possible you have some typos there?  Maybe recheck and compare to your paperwork?  If the full scale IQ is the number you put (47), that's not in the average range.  Did they calculate a GAI (adjusted IQ) score?  I know they use words, but it might be more helpful to you to google the numbers.  

 

It seems like your sense of his needs is very strong.  I haven't dealt with your scenario, but it seems like the ID (intellectual disability) is affecting him as much as the processing speed.  The two work together.  It seems like he is doing very well with your efforts, so I'd continue to listen to your gut.  You might start a new thread with low IQ or ID in the title and see if it catches the people who will know how to help you. Ottakee and others have dealt with this and would have specific recommendations for you.

 

Given his age, you might also like to talk transition issues.  Did they get you connected with any county disability services he qualifies for?  In our county you need disabilities in 3 areas, and he probably is there.  They could probably be of help to you.

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To accommodate DS, he listens to audio texts and types his work. Reading with immersion technology has been helpful.  I cut away busy work, and he mindmaps using software.  I have to pick and choose what subjects are the priority and use get 'er done type coursework for everything else.  School for DS is simply a long day, so I encourage DS to use his strengths to prop up difficult coursework. For example, he used his skills with computer graphics to complete informal logic assignments.  For literature, I prefer a short story to teach a concept.  Story maps are good for review of literature.  I basically have to break things down into bite sized chunks.  

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Oh, goodness, yes, I did put that wrong on the IQ.  47 is the percentile rank, which they say is Average.  I will try to fix that up there.  I don't believe there are any other errors there.  The Processing Speed Index is definitely 4th percentile rank, while when they list the subtests for it, he is 5th percentile rank for both of those, as I described.

 

Thanks again for your helpful advice and input, ladies!

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I know a student who scored pretty close to that for processing & she's carrying an A average in college right now - so take a deep breath and don't panic. She does have accommodation arranged & gets extra time on exams.

Her studying is very much along what's in the Superstar student dvd from the Teaching Company. Skim read the text ahead of lecture, take notes, attend lecture and take notes, (1/2 way through last year she got one of those pens that also records the lecture & creates an active document of her notes. Later, she can just tap a word and the recording will start playing what the prof was saying at that moment), read through notes & text again & try to summarize &/or expand &/or reword &/or make up key word/definitions/formula notes within 24h.

I think you should use a regular high school curriculum but be prepared to lecture, don't just hand your son stuff and expect him to plow through it. Or you can try combining a program with the literature and history lectures at Teaching Co.

Skim reading is a skill that you may have to work on separately. Try to find texts that have a good clean page layout, intro at the beginning, bolding for important sections, summaries.

You may actually want to work specifically on study skills. There were several threads here about that in the past months. I like Cal Newport's Study Hacks blog & his books but there were lots of suggestions posted if you can find those threads...

 

 

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A GAI would be helpful to see. The working memory and processing speed could drag down a full scale IQ REALLY fast no matter how high the rest of the scores are. I have one with processing speed in this range, but his working memory is better. My ASD kiddo takes a hit to working memory and processing speed, but not in this range. 

 

Do you have any idea what his reading level is? And within that, how he does with comprehension that involves drawing inferences or lots of new vocabulary? That makes a big difference in what to recommend curriculum-wise. If he's simply a slow reader who finds things sink in slowly, that is very different from slow + reading comprehension issues. If you think he is not performing up to his capabilities because of speed, you might need to do some explicit teaching on reading strategies. ASD kiddos have issues with making connections and inferences. They often make the wrong connections or draw inferences from the wrong pieces of information. It's very easy to assume they are plodding along unless you can see the misunderstandings. Until he had a diagnosis and a way to describe these things, my son often looked like he was doing fine on the surface, but he would be a bundle of nerves under the hood because he was mixed up about some (usually) easily-corrected misunderstanding (he was much younger at diagnosis, so the misunderstandings were smaller). 

 

Anytime processing is this low, I think it's a good idea to check on developmental vision as well with a COVD optometrist. Eye-teaming issues can really mess a lot of stuff up.

 

 

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Ohelizabeth- it sounds like we are doing g the same thing! I definitely feel like this year in 4th grade is the first time I didn't have to "seed". I can be a lot more directive, as in this is what we are learning next week, and the seed will be ready next week. No more waiting and hoping that it will be. So much easier to plan and accommodate.

Scrappy- I would do something along the lines of Literary Lessons for Lord of the Rings With audio book support. It will 1) give him the whole year to process one text as a whole 2) the extra project and assignments will give him a break from the laborious reading while still having the assignments connect to the texts allowing him to process what he's already read before moving on to the new reading. 3) expose his to the "not modern English" that seams to slow him down, while providing the auditory support he scored so high in during testing. It will help him make connections by using his strengths while exposing and working on that area where you see weakness. And if he is anything like my son, he will say nothing is as hard as trying to read Lord of the Rings, everything after that to him seamed easy.

For history perhaps the same method of a literature based with audio book support, to use his strengths while exposing him to archaic texts and topics? I'm not really sure, perhaps someone else would have some good ideas.

Edited: because typing on my phone is still impossible for me. 

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I know a student who scored pretty close to that for processing & she's carrying an A average in college right now - so take a deep breath and don't panic. She does have accommodation arranged & gets extra time on exams.

 

Her studying is very much along what's in the Superstar student dvd from the Teaching Company. Skim read the text ahead of lecture, take notes, attend lecture and take notes, (1/2 way through last year she got one of those pens that also records the lecture & creates an active document of her notes. Later, she can just tap a word and the recording will start playing what the prof was saying at that moment), read through notes & text again & try to summarize &/or expand &/or reword &/or make up key word/definitions/formula notes within 24h.

 

I think you should use a regular high school curriculum but be prepared to lecture, don't just hand your son stuff and expect him to plow through it. Or you can try combining a program with the literature and history lectures at Teaching Co.

 

Skim reading is a skill that you may have to work on separately. Try to find texts that have a good clean page layout, intro at the beginning, bolding for important sections, summaries.

 

You may actually want to work specifically on study skills. There were several threads here about that in the past months. I like Cal Newport's Study Hacks blog & his books but there were lots of suggestions posted if you can find those threads...

I agree 100% with this.  DS also uses the basic Echo SmartPen in class, and Cal Newport's blog is awesome.

 

I taught DS how to use a text book using these textmapping materials.  Learning to read non-fiction is a skill too.

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kbutton - 

By GAI I'm assuming you mean the General Ability Index?  That is in the 70th percentile rank = Average.  

 

I don't know his reading level.   He did k12 online school two years ago and had to take our state's standardized test.  He scored in the 97th percentile for his Reading score.  I know it's just one standardized test, but, based on that, it seems he shouldn't be having any trouble, doesn't it? Hmm.  Of course, those tests probably didn't include "old English". :-)

 

 

 

 

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kbutton - 

By GAI I'm assuming you mean the General Ability Index?  That is in the 70th percentile rank = Average.  

 

I don't know his reading level.   He did k12 online school two years ago and had to take our state's standardized test.  He scored in the 97th percentile for his Reading score.  I know it's just one standardized test, but, based on that, it seems he shouldn't be having any trouble, doesn't it? Hmm.  Of course, those tests probably didn't include "old English". :-)

 

Yes, that is what I meant. So, he is bull's-eye average according to this table, no intellectual disability (since that has been mentioned as possible). 

 

http://faculty.pepperdine.edu/shimels/Courses/Files/Class%20Ratings.pdf

 

Not all reading tests measure the same things, but kids on the spectrum, across the board, often still have subtle problems with context, inference, etc., and that may or may not show up on the test. 

 

I do like the ideas of listening and reading at the same time--that might help him develop an ear for the vocabulary. If he isn't sure, for instance, how to pronounce a word he's seen in writing, he might be sort of stuck on that. Kids who pick up new words for reading have this problem quite a bit--I struggled with that just a bit when I was younger. I thought "Penelope" was pronounced similarly to "antelope." :-) Hearing things correctly sometimes makes better brain connections with known words.

 

Processing speed and working memory are a big deal. They keep our thoughts going in the right direction, help us keep track of things. He may be backtracking with unfamiliar words and such. It's not necessarily that he can't comprehend, but the working memory and processing slow the process down so much that it's not at all efficient. And if he's struggling to catch the subtle reading comprehension stuff, that further gums up the works. I would probably use organizational strategies and pre-reading strategies to make it all smoother. With processing, we were told that reducing the amount of multi-tasking and any kind of throughput is crucial. For reading, you might want to make charts, notes, keep track of characters and plot, etc. With ASD in the picture, your son might also be over-focusing on the "wrong" details of the story and getting bogged down, like being on a perpetual rabbit trail. If there are social customs in the books he's reading that are new, that might also be another barrier since social stuff is not as easy for these kiddos to pick up on. Some people struggle with vocabulary even with a great reading level. I know one middle schooler that reads adult books (and has for a while), but fails to pick up on new vocabulary. Even explicitly taught vocabulary is a struggle, and she doesn't have anything obviously diagnostically significant going on.

 

The study skills strategies that others mentioned would likely help with the processing by slowing things down and making connections explicit so that he doesn't have to rebuild them over and over (the working memory keeps all the juggled balls in the air until the facts get into long-term memory). With a working memory that low, it's taking time for him to get stuff into long-term storage, and that means he's juggling a HUGE load of facts every time he encounters new information. Offloading that to graphic organizers, etc. could be tremendously helpful. I would make some kind of templates for him to track stuff as he reads. The same templates EVERY TIME, so that the templates themselves do not bog down throughput by being new to him. You might tack them on a bulletin board so that he can quickly scan for what information he needs to remember while reading vs. having to flip through his notebook to find the right mental map for the task he's doing. This book would be below his reading level, but the 6-8th grade version of The Reader's Handbook has a lot of skills taught explicitly and has a whole reference section on graphic organizers for various purposes, including beginning literary analysis types of things. He needs the path smoothed and worn for him. His mind doesn't have the throughput to make his own efficient pathways--there's just too much stuff piling up on the assembly line with that kind of working memory and processing speed. If you do look into The Reader's Handbook, I don't think it has grade levels on it, so he won't have to know it's for younger kiddos. We use it with my son, and he loves it, even though he has very superior reading scores as well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0669488577/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687662&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0669490067&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0P31N1HKZC44X0DJ3Z2A 

 

I think you will have to work closely with him, or else he will develop these skills haphazardly and inefficiently by virtue of having too much to sift and process. If you can think of it not so much as a reading problem (though some ASD characteristics are likely at play too), but a problem of an assembly line going too fast for the number of workers, the number of boxes to put the finished product in, etc., then it might help you think of strategies none of us have mentioned.

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Wow I hadn't heard of the echo smartpen before.  Is the pen useful if the student is not recording sound but just using it as an input device for later note editing?  (Thinking out loud, I assume recording = permission = need official accommodation)

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The study skills strategies that others mentioned would likely help with the processing by slowing things down and making connections explicit so that he doesn't have to rebuild them over and over (the working memory keeps all the juggled balls in the air until the facts get into long-term memory). With a working memory that low, it's taking time for him to get stuff into long-term storage, and that means he's juggling a HUGE load of facts every time he encounters new information. Offloading that to graphic organizers, etc. could be tremendously helpful. I would make some kind of templates for him to track stuff as he reads. The same templates EVERY TIME, so that the templates themselves do not bog down throughput by being new to him. You might tack them on a bulletin board so that he can quickly scan for what information he needs to remember while reading vs. having to flip through his notebook to find the right mental map for the task he's doing. This book would be below his reading level, but the 6-8th grade version of The Reader's Handbook has a lot of skills taught explicitly and has a whole reference section on graphic organizers for various purposes, including beginning literary analysis types of things. He needs the path smoothed and worn for him. His mind doesn't have the throughput to make his own efficient pathways--there's just too much stuff piling up on the assembly line with that kind of working memory and processing speed. If you do look into The Reader's Handbook, I don't think it has grade levels on it, so he won't have to know it's for younger kiddos. We use it with my son, and he loves it, even though he has very superior reading scores as well. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0669488577/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_1?pf_rd_p=1944687662&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=0669490067&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0P31N1HKZC44X0DJ3Z2A 

 

kbutton: Your post is beyond awesome. Thank you! My DS has a very slow processing speed as well, and I've been struggling to understand/visualize how it impacts him. Would you please link to a graphic organizer that you have found useful? I'm not entirely sure I understand what they are or how they work. I did purchase the Reader's Handbook (at the fourth grade level), so that will arrive in a few days. I'd just like to understand the organizers a bit better.  DS struggles mightily on reading poetry and fiction with dialog. He's really solid on short passages and nonfiction. Thank you, again.

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I have a high school dd with similar scores (although without that higher arithmetic score.) I use Teaching Company lectures for both history and literature. We try and listen to three lectures a week and then sometimes backtrack and re-listen to the third one again as the first of the following week. The lectures are high level, but most do repeat information along the way to help my dd with processing the information. We do mostly discussion as writing is what really bogs her down. We keep written papers to a minimum. I also switched her to an online science program. The science textbooks were too overwhelming. The writing required in the online class is a struggle, but the scientific information has already been culled from the textbook and is often already presented in some sort of graphic nature that is very helpful to her.

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Wow I hadn't heard of the echo smartpen before.  Is the pen useful if the student is not recording sound but just using it as an input device for later note editing?  (Thinking out loud, I assume recording = permission = need official accommodation)

The beauty of the smartpen is that it links the audio to the notes. Without the audio, I can't see the purpose in using the pen. Thus far, DS has permission to record, but he attends a private cover. 

 

DS turns on the pen at the beginning of lecture and writes his homework assignments down with the pen. The process has been awesome because he will miss important info while writing. DS also draws stars in his notebook during lecture when a complicated concept is being discussed. The star will take him directly to the info that he needs to relisten. Son downloads the pen to the computer to create a pencast. From the computer, I will listen to the lecture to explain concepts when DS is confused. The process is amazing really. 

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kbutton: Your post is beyond awesome. Thank you! My DS has a very slow processing speed as well, and I've been struggling to understand/visualize how it impacts him. Would you please link to a graphic organizer that you have found useful? I'm not entirely sure I understand what they are or how they work. I did purchase the Reader's Handbook (at the fourth grade level), so that will arrive in a few days. I'd just like to understand the organizers a bit better.  DS struggles mightily on reading poetry and fiction with dialog. He's really solid on short passages and nonfiction. Thank you, again.

 

One of the organizers my older son and I used is one that looks at characters through what the other characters say about them or what the character does. My handbook is out of the house right now--a friend is looking at it. This is what we are doing, though we haven't used this organizer. http://youngteacherlove.blogspot.com/2014/04/inferring-character-traits-through.html

 

We are just tiptoeing into this sort of thing--trying this or that to see what we like, how time-consuming things are, etc. We've mostly organized and streamlined work this year, but we also did that with supports (we have kind of a time slot/task list thing we work through, and then we plug stuff into this when we are finished: http://fivejs.com/homeschool-weekly-assignment-planner/).The more stuff we offload to paper (until we can get it into memory), the better. I think it's important to use something to the point of proficiency before introducing a bunch more. None of it has to be fancy. You can put facts to remember on post-it notes or cards and tack it to a board--as long as it has an organizational focus (character development, dialog, plot diagram, whatever), it's a giant graphic organizer. The big thing is that he can use a method confidently to learn or keep track of ___, and that it's available for quick reference at the point where he needs it. My younger one with processing issues is a math whiz, but we struggle sometimes with novel assignments--he gets so stuck on the directions that it doesn't matter how great the activity is. You want to stay away from lots of novelty in the directions when the concept is new, or all that mental processing goes toward the directions, not toward learning.

 

My younger kiddo's processing speed issues show up in motor planning and anything that has to do with chores, getting ready in the AM, etc. We've been using verbal stuff for a while (probably not his best modality), but now that he reads really well, we hope to use more checklists. We try to keep certain activities the same over and over because new information is just mental clutter. It gums up the works. I don't know how this will translate into reading in the future because he's still pretty little. I probably should've been using visual schedules and checklists with him, but I have horrible luck find pictures of things that I think suit our needs.

 

If the grade 4 handbook is set up like the 6-8th grades, it will have very specific tips and organizers to go with poetry, dialog, etc. They will use these organizers to teach it, and then the back will have a big reference section with the organizers sketched out but blank. They are not reproducible, but they are designed to be sketched onto paper as needed.

 

One organizer I saw for botany had predictable sections for identifying trees--for each tree, you look at leaf patterns (placement, veins, shape, edges, etc.). They possible combinations are listed out, so the student simply circles which characteristics it has in the various categories instead of having to remember that those are all the things you check to figure out what tree it is. You might be able to (over time) find something close to what you like and then tailor it. Then, he can use it for tracking, inferencing, or whatever it is that is bogging him down.

 

I hope that helps. We are very new to this idea in the realm of literature, though we've used these supports elsewhere.

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