Is there a computer processing disorder?

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Sorry for the funny title, I was not sure how to explain what I meant.
My DH is in his sixties, working and uses computers. He has used computers for about 15 years at work, but has always really struggled. He completed and passed the old EU driving licence for computers, and has had lots of formal and informal computer training at work. But he still struggles.

He seems to be fine if he just has to do the same thing on the computer all the time. So at the moment he sends and answers emails at work and completes a database of jobs allocated and completed with comments. But as soon as there any changes, however slight, he panics and it takes ages for him to learn and retain how to do the changes. He writes down detailed instructions when he is taught about any changes, but still struggles.

He is an intelligent person in every other area of his life. So I wondered if there is any kind of processing disorder like dyscalculia, but related to computers?
I am asking because I struggle to understand why he struggles so much. Sometimes when he is wfh and is struggling with something he will ask me for help, and it is always something I can just work out by trying out what to do. He does not seem to have the ability to do this on computers.
Anyone know why this would be when he is not like this in any other part if his life?

I don’t know the answer but I definitely have staff like this so it would be interesting to know!

Does he panic/struggle with all types of change?

@Tiddlywinkly Not at all. He just struggles to use computers and needs loads of training and support to be able to do what is needed at work.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Following because I'm interested!
I'm not a psychologist but have a child with SEN and my guess would be its some kind of cognitive processing difference linked to how humans follow rules. It might take him longer to process a change than other people.

My child has challenges with working memory and would definitely struggle with this as he would "forget" what he's just seen while trying to fit it to what he already knows.

https://www.understood.org/en/articles/working-memory-what-it-is-and-how-it-works

A lot is said about how ‘intuitive’ computers are these days, but I think they rely a lot on learned familiarity with systems.

I happily adapt to anything within the Microsoft environment and no wonder - I have been using it since the mid nineties!

It was a surprise when I first started using Google Suite a few years ago and found that it operated on some quite different principles in important respects.

That is interesting thanks. He says he struggles because he does not understand the underlying processes. When I think about it, the other areas of his life where he has to calculate things that change, he understands the underlying theories behind it. He often uses deduction to get the answers to complex problems. So maybe it is about working memory where you learn to do things without any understanding of the underlying processes i.e. coding and what is happening.

He often gets frustrated with IT as if something goes wrong and he asks them why it has gone wrong, they do not have the answer, or just say, yeah the system does that sometimes. They just tell him to do x, y and z to sort it. But he always wants to understand it.

Does he have a smart phone and does he use it?

Are there particular programs on the computer that he struggles with?

He has a smartphone and struggles with that. He is fine with texts and phone calls, google and whatsup, but leaves anything else to me.
He struggles with all but the simplest programmes.

He is like someone who learns his 9 times table so can repeat the answers to 5x9 etc. But does not understand the underlying process so if you ask what is 8x5 would not have a clue and would have to be taught all the answers to the 8 times table.

I don't think it'll be a computer processing disorder, more likely a weakness of processing speed and working memory.

If you ask him to spell something tricky would he want to write it down first or could he spell it out loud? Mental arithmetic Vs similar problems written down? Multi step instructions given verbally, would he have forgotten instructions 3 and 4 before getting to them?
Once things become ingrained it doesn't need processing as much and requires less working memory.

very interesting

I'm involved at work with project & change management and this is a hot topic for big changes - we always aim to take ~ 80% with us through general training and detailed manuals. then ~15% through targeted training and expect to lose 5%

but that's for big changes/new software not a software update where a button is suddenly at the top where it previously was at the bottom...

sorry, am not really helpful.

Just curious about what he does that he’s only been using computers for the past 15 years. Computers in offices have been a thing for about 40 years now!

@AnnunciataM he does not do an office job. And computers have not been in offices for 40 years. Or only some incredibly well resourced ones. I worked in the public sector in the nineties and did not have a computer. We still had secretaries.

@Singleandproud I think he is fine with those things, but I will double check. Never noticed any issues. His mental arithmetic is good.

Computer has been in the office for 40 years. Windows 3.0/3.1 was released in 1993 (30 years ago) and that was used widely in offices. My dad has an Apple in the 80s. I was a child of the 70s and I remember Dad with Word Perfect and Lotus 123. I have never been in an office without networked computers. The ones in the 80s were standalone PCs and not usually networked. The early office networks shared printers, not connected to the internet in the office.

@NewYearResolutions I am not going to get into this argument. But you are talking based on your dad having an apple. The nineties is when computers really took of in offices. And like all innovations, some offices adopted them more quickly than others.

Old fashioned places adopted then last of all.
But I am not lying. I worked in offices in the nineties that had computers, and for four years one that did not - they still had secretaries. I also worked with senior managers who still got their secretaries to print off emails and dictated replies for the secretary to reply. I worked in one place where the senior did this. My computer broke down and he gave me his as he never used it. So even the presence of a computer did not mean it was always used.

Jobs that are not office based were sometimes slower to adopt computers for staff not office based. DH worked keeping papers records for years. Finally his company invested in an IT system that duplicated what they had previously carried out on paper.

A lot of my friends are working class and have more practical jobs and I still knew people who had not touched a computer in 2000. So for some people using computers is more recent. And frankly I do not appreciate being accused of lying on a thread where I am asking for peoples thoughts around a personal issue.
I am now going to ignore you.

It's interesting because I definitely know people like this.

I know people in their 70s and 80s who are really tech savvy despite never been formally taught how to use computers, and never having used them at work.

I also know people my age (40s) who can technically use a computer but definitely struggle. I have a friend who still struggles with her smartphone, and she's a doctor so not daft. I would say she generally struggles with change, I remember she didn't get a visa card until the mid 2000s and paid for everything in cash. She really hated lockdown when you had to scan QR codes and pay at your table via an app in cafes etc.

I would love to know if any young people I.e. gen z struggle with technology, because I suspect it is much rarer, they all seem to intuitively know it all.

Re: computers in offices in the 90s, I did a lot of temp work in the 90s when I was a student and there were definitely offices with typewriters instead of computers, and others that had computers.

@slacker We have graduates on grad schemes and they aren’t any good on the computer. But I work in software so the bar is high. The Gen Z are worse than our 40 or 50 year olds. It’s very common they have zero diagnostic skills in solving problems. For example, given a link to a network drive many can’t figure out how to use it. Then if they can’t access it, all they can say is it doesn’t work, but without the ability to describe the actual problem accurately. For example, is it timing out? Do they not have permission. This is very basic level of computer literacy and these are people on a technical graduate program.

Some are brilliant I mean. But some aren’t good. It’s a good mix like older people.

I’m like this. I’m not old. I always seriously consider handing in my notice when we get a new computer system.

I’m autistic and assumed it was related to that. It took me over a year to be able to send an email without help when we changed software. I cry when I get a new phone!

I wonder if it's because it's a single screen that changes when you make an input, so you can't trace the change?

I used to have quite a photographic memory - I could remember something I'd read and I'd be able to say "It was ⅔ of the way through the book, on the right hand side of text, at the top.", and I'd be able to find it.

Now, especially using my phone, everything is 'in the middle' on the same screen. I can read 15 pages of text but the paragraph I've remembered was always on 'page 1' visually.

I wonder if he's finding it hard to trace his path through processes?

I had to train on computers in the mid 80s.
I worked in foreign exchange.
To this day I cannot work a spreadsheet or anything other than just googling.
My adult children have tried so hard but my brain says 'no.'