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?

People didn't believe in dyslexia until fairly recently. There was some initial research into it in the 1800s when education became more wide spread and people noticed very severe dyslexia (called word blindness) in educated children, but it was very possible to be a successful adult without good reading comprehension.

Even a couple of generations ago, people thought that dyslexic children were just not very clever, and laughed at their inability to spell.

It's only very recently that the mechanism has been better understood to be due to a difficulty processing the units of sound, and now children with those missing capabilities are actively taught strategies which other children don't need. Even with those strategies, reading still takes more time and effort for a dyslexic child than for a non-dyslexic child with the same intelligence. Dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence.

Not sure why you're so certain that there there aren't some underlying cognitive capabilities which we use to work with computers, which if weak cause unexpected difficulty. Capabilities which until a couple of generations ago people could manage just fine without, by choosing jobs which suited their strengths (as we all do). But with computers, those very specific capabilities have become almost universally important in the last couple of generations.

Really interesting discussion.
In terms of how abstract things fit together DH is really good at this, but you might be into something here. DH complains that he struggles with computers as he does not understand the abstract parts of how computers work. How do different parts interface with each other and therefore why might something go wrong.

I am just - I dont need to know that, but experience teaches me that there might be little dots in the right hand corner, or settings or a menu that can help change how this programme is working so you can do what you want to do. And lots of using computers is intuitively exploring. It is that ability he seems to lack and even when he tries he seems to make odd choices.

Some of you may be right that it is not specifically related to computers, but to learning and processing skills and styles.

I work in an FE college as a Learning Technologist. I'm 33, so mid-generation Millennial.

I joined the college a couple of years ago and was shocked by the students' lack of digital skills. The vast majority who come to see me don't understand the difference between the various systems, or what type of file they're trying to upload, or what I mean when I ask which browser they use.

One student (aged 17ish) didn't know how to find a website and asked me to create a QR code on my PC so they could scan it. I asked another to open an incognito/private browser window and they just handed me their phone.

I assumed that computer skills would be excellent amongst Gen Z but no, they seem to have taken a nosedive. I wonder if things are now too automated, what with dedicated apps for email/shopping/music/news, QR codes and "click the link in the description" everywhere now. Lots of kids haven't learned how to navigate a computer or search for information because it's usually there with one click.

In 1993 I shared a PC in IT class in secondary school and in music class we had a PC with MIDI capabilities. In 1999 my college course (music tech) did not have a pc for each student. Both are in west London. At university there were PCs to book in the library however we were not required to type our assignments in yr1. This was in East Sussex We did have a few Apple macs. There was no apple mac college. I did not have a PC at home until yr2 of uni.

I think some people are forgetting how expensive computers were/are.

At work I didn't use a PC until I was in market research and that was old 1970/80 black screen green letters.

When I started at a corporate job in 2006 I had my own computer to use but still had to use the fax machine many times a day.

The time that computers entered your life/home depends on your parents, educational facility, location in the world and the type of work you do.

My first job in 1999 was a junior in a hairdressers in west london - there was no computer.

I sm like this but it’s mainly because I have absolutely no interest . I can do the basics I need for work but if someone tries to explain to me about computers it’s like a screen comes down and I switch off! I am considered pretty intelligent in other areas.

In 2020/21 kind people donated computers to schools/families so that children who did not have one could be in a position to continue their learning at home.

Their families did not refuse to keep up with changes deliberately. They simply could not afford to.

Staying on this topic. Many employers/companies cannot afford to also keep up with all the tech changes. It depends on your area of business and whether you are in the private/public sector.

The company I work at now still uses several programmes from the 1980/90s! They are very good and to update the whole thing and keep all legacy data would be too costly for the company.

To all the pp saying this is a working memory issue or he has slow processing, I would have to disagree.

I have ADHD and very poor working memory, executive functioning issues and have issues with recall and slow processing.

But I "get" computers. I am not an expert by any means but can do what I need with them, am quick to pick up new systems etc abd adopt new technology/updates, and can generally fix issues if they occur.

My DH who I would say is brighter than me and is NT and does a very difficult and technically difficult job. Plus was very good at sciences at school, struggles with computers! I am "tech support" in our house. I can't watch him use the internet as he is so slow. He's also not great at searching for things as he doesn't know what to put to get the result he wants.

At work I find him doing things in a very long winded way and he struggles to work out how to do what he wants quickly. He doesn't, for example use window snapping (despite me telling him about it a million times and it being ridiculously easy to use) he clicks between windows when working on two documents. Which is so slow and laborious I don't know how he copes with it tbh.

He is great at excel weirdly, but if a computer doesn't work, or has an error, he can't fix it. He's also great at setting up audio systems do it baffles me as to why he struggles with computers so much.

Very odd. But some people just don't seem to get them.

After I graduated I worked in a remote bit of ICI - a sort of satellite site, and one of my jobs was to “do the Telex” which was to send a list of the things the site had done that day, to another office. In reality the Telex was a massive thingy next to the photocopier, I’d type the day’s figures into it, make it print it, and then Debbie would fax this to the other office. I said “so Debs, we are actually just sending a fax.” And she insisted that no, this was “Doing the telex.”

I hand wrote everything else, and when I introduced NCR paper so I wasn’t repeating the same bloody thing over and over, there were gasps and sucking of teeth.

Debs had The Computer on her desk but most communications were done by her writing on a sheet of A4 and then faxing it. I think email might have been checked every few days but even firing up The Computer took ages so we mostly didn’t bother.

This was 1995 in a global company.

I was about to say is it that he doesn't understand how the computer works?

Imagine learning to drive a car.

I was taught to listen to the engine to know how to change gears, so set off in second when it was snowy.

But if the person taught you took you around the same roads all the time and told you 'go up a gear' and you go up a gear whenever you pass the post office.

So you learn that you go up a gear at the post office, not because you need to go up a gear because that is what the engine is telling you. So when you drive on a different road and you see a post office you try to go up a gear and the car does not behave how you expected.

Tho OU has a lot of free resources and they are excellent.

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/digital-computing/digital-skills-succeeding-digital-world/content-section-overview?active-tab=description-tab

Yep.

I certainly think “disorder” is a bit strong, it’s certainly possible to “get” computers at a fundamental level, have learnt stuff like Fortran and Basic way back, but not have the time or interest in investing effort in learning the foibles of the latest sometimes badly designed interface.

Horses for courses etc.

I have a colleague like this, and I am finding it frustrating. To be fair to him, we have changed systems recently from file servers to SharePoint, making use of MS Lists etc, plus we're now using Teams. But he just refuses to try to get his head around it, and he is holding others (mainly me and our joint team) back. We have to use other bits of software in our roles and again, he just refuses. But that means that someone else has to do it, and that someone is often me, because I have taken time to learn how to use the software.

I am a bit annoyed at him for his unwillingness to try, but I am more annoyed at my organisation and my immediate leadership team for rolling all these changes out and not making sure staff had time and support to learn how to use the systems. It's now turning into a bit of a car crash.

That analogy (car and misunderstanding the reasons for a gear change) is an actually a good one in the context of this discussion…

If you trying to teach somebody something and they don’t appear to be getting the message, or continue to do something incorrectly, it’s just maybe worth considering where the problem lies…with the student or the teacher?

Just because you know how to do something does not mean you are automatically going to be any good at explaining it to somebody else….just maybe the problem sometimes is a “teaching disorder”…🤔

Could your DH be autistic? I struggle with this type of thing too and was recently (in my 50s) diagnosed with autism. Most people are surprised about my diagnosis.

Anyway the reason I struggle I think is because I find it difficult to learn a series of
Steps. I do learn eventually but I am slow. It is easier for me if I understand the logic behind the process.

For much the same reason, I struggle with learning dances, even the most basic ones that 5 year olds learn.

My sister is 44 and struggles with computers