Slow processing speed and nutrition?

[Fredflinstoneswife1]

Posting here for traffic:

Does anyone here have experience of their child having slow processing speed? My child - aged 6 - received his school report and his teacher had written that he was terribly slow at completing his work 'significantly slower than the [24] other children in the class', in her words. That he continuously needs to be refocused to do his work and zones out.
This is the third teacher that has mentioned the zoning out. But I was really shocked to hear he is significantly slower than the rest of the class. She says he is a bright boy - gives astute and mature answers, but the processing is too slow.

It all sounds like ADD. Has anyone managed to counter it with nutrition? I've seen adverts on my phone, but I'm wondering if it is baloney that diet can have such an effect. I've read elsewhere that it is a cognitive trait that can't be "fixed". 😟 So I don't know what to think.

Slow processing speed could be he has dyslexia. Check for visual stress too.

Change of diet will not fix a slow processing speed.

I would not assume ADD. Has he ever been assessed?

Slow processing can exist alongside dyslexia and ADHD (also other SEN) but it is an SEN of its own too.

My advice would be to get him tested. And if recommended, medicate. Medication has been transformative for our DC. Despite our having been very against it.

FB has lots of SEN groups that discuss nutrition and diet but the outcome of almost all feedback is that it makes very little difference.

Dyslexia is slow processing speed.

Many people get diagnosed with dyslexia when in fact they only have visual stress and a colour overlay of text would fix this. Having visual stress doesn’t mean you automatically have dyslexia which is a slow processing speed, taking in information (whether spoken or written) and retaining the information.

It could be several things . He may have a learning delay - he might be autistic - he might find the sensory environment of the classroom overwhelming.

My daughter is autistic and the educational psychologist who assessed her did cognitive processing tests - it showed that in a busy environment she is unable to take in information the way other children can - she needs calm/ quiet/ low class numbers. This is common with SEND - and why so many children suffer in mainstream. She also used to zone out - and had to be given instructions multiple times.

Please do not only look at nutrition- as the parent of a chilld who has suffered so much since she started primary - we are now in Year 7 and at specialist school - I can only tell you to get professional input urgently.

I wish we had paid for a high quality educational pscyhologist to asses our child a long time ago - I trusted too much in the SEN system /council/school who said they were trying to help her

OP - please remember absolutely nobody here knows your child and why he is struggling to follow instructions and steps through his work/ completing work. It could be problems in the environment - he might be delayed in procecssing for other reasons.

Just start seeking expert input now - as I promise you - mainstream school is hell for children who struggle unless their additional needs are properly understood. He might for example need TA support/ additional reading - you might be better off getting a SEN tutor to help him if he is very much at a different learning level than his peers.

It doesn't say he has slow processing speed. It says he takes ages to do the work. That could be potentially very different. Could be just looking out of the window. It doesn't necessarily mean he can't grasp it. I would speak to your SENCO about more support to keep him on track and let you know what the real issue is. Our SENCO will do a dyslexia screener which is helpful even if you suspect alternative ND because it highlights processing speed and working memory.

I was worried about my dc taking too long with certain things. Some activities I’d take him to he would just stare, take longer, be the last one. He also had one teacher who kept telling me he is ‘slow’ and marked him as below expectation for pe… I watched various videos re slow processing, dyspraxia, add and tried to implement some of the advice, but ultimately in our case it seems it was anxieties. I worked on his self confidence and feeling of safety and security and he’s doing much better. Now I’m getting great reports from teachers, he is doing ok socially, he’s also great at races etc - no longer hesitating and falling behind.

Nutrition - I’ve always been very conscious of giving dc healthy, low UPF food. I see no harm in that. I do believe we are what we eat to an extent - it’s all biochemistry. I don’t think you can go wrong with varied diet of whole foods. His school
is not great as other children often have sweets in their lunch boxes, juice in their water bottles, they had two ice lollies a day during the heatwave, and so on but I’m trying to keep on top of it.

Good luck, op

Have they actually mentioned slow processing speed? Some kids, especially that young, just aren't fussed about doing the book work.

Absence seizures?

Slow processing and dyslexia are different.

I have slow processing but not dyslexia. They can be combined in one child but can also present totally separately.

They are separate in the same way that ADHD/ADD and dyslexia are different.

However, many of these SEN originate in the same part of the brain so there can be lots of cross over.

Specific learning difficulties like dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, auditory processing disorder and so on, can include slow processing (delays between instruction and action), poor working memory(not being able to recall what to do, in what order, focus and needing prompts, losing concentration due to distractibility and fatigue. A child can be very bright but unable to express it on paper especially to time constraints. There may be comorbidities with ASD and ADD but not necessarily.

I do not know if it is related, but he really struggled with an abnormal tiredness that would last for a couple or a few of months at a time, and then it would go away for maybe a month, this was during nursery and it continued through to p1. It started when he started nursery. There were days in p1 where he was off purely due to tiredness. Saw GP, saw paediatrician, had bloods done: no answers.

Then his p1 teacher told me he could not follow multistep instructions.
I tried to work on that last summer.
Then in October the p2 teacher told me he would be in his own wee world, would struggle to manage his things/himself, and she even questioned if he had a hearing problem because he was really poor at responding to her (I know his hearing is fine). That p2 teacher went off on maternity leave so the latest report is from the most recent p2 teacher.
There are 6 reading groups in the class and he is in the second from the top so he isn't struggling with phonics and reading but I don't know how quick the comprehension is.

I don't know if the tiredness is related but I do wonder. He doesn't seem to struggle with it as much now.
Another character trait is that he would often struggle a bit to self regulate his emotions.

You asked if diet can have such an effect.
What is his general diet like? Does he already have a wide and varied diet?

DD went through a long phase of being very slow at school. Things like times tables and spellings where she needed to recall set information just seemed impossible for her, for a long time. She then was diagnosed with coeliac disease and went on a gluten free diet and within 6 months she was back to being top of the class.

I'm not saying that this is whats happening with your DC but diet can definitely have an impact on brain activity.

I would keep working on his sense of self anyway, respecting how he feels, talking through his own reasoning with him etc. Because if he is confident in himself, he will be better able to verbalise what he needs and be better at finding a way to help himself. Keep up a good daily routine too

How do you check for visual stress?

My DD was always exhausted after school. It turns out one factor was having to concentrate so hard due to her slow processing.

I would ask for an appointment with the SENCO and ask how to proceed. (He may be a bit young for standardised tests at the moment?)

Do you notice anything at home?

What makes you think it is to do with nutrition?

Unless his current diet is very bad and full of processed foods, I doubt it's having a huge effect on something like this.

If he does have ADD you can't 'counter' it with nutrition.

You need to get him an assessment and an EHCP in place at school to support him.

Talk to the SENCO first of all.

Hello! Teacher here. If we have a child in school with slow processing we always check eyes and ears first, and then check the child is able to and breathes through their nose the majority of the time. This is one parents don’t always realise, but so SO many children can have palate problems (you can’t detect this by looking at them) and so they become mouth breathers to try and suck more oxygen in, but a child who breathes through their mouth and not their nose is only at about 80% oxygen saturation and so because they are essentially under-oxygenated their processing is slower. This can be really hard to detect, but a speech and language therapist would be able to help. Then, once/if these three physical potentials had been ruled out/ confirmed, an educational psychologist would be able to determine if there were any learning differences which would contribute to slower processing and recommend adjustments to be made. Panic not! Slower processing is something we see a lot and there are lots of things that can help, you just need to find the right tool and professionals will help with that!

DD has visual processing disorder and whilst she is bright every thing takes her more time. She has lots of coping mechanisms and these combined with extra means she got good grades and a good degree.
But if she has to do anything new she is exhausted the energy used in processing the new thing is huge, even worse if it is reading to do the new thing. She is a very auditory/kinesthetic learner so does much better is she can listen to instructions or do the thing several times.

Have you had his eyes checked?

I definitely wouldn't immediately assume ADD given what you've said, and neither would I try to 'treat' that with diet. Feed him a healthy diet anyway, and then push the school for tests to find out what's going on (or go private). It could be any number of things, or nothing and he just needs to grow up a bit.

Might be ADHD or some other kind of neurodivergence. If that is the case, diet improvements will make little to no difference because it is due to physiological differences in his brain (assuming he is not living only on chips and chocolate, or some similar terrible diet). Obviously, though, we can all
improve our diets, so it is always a good idea to make adjustments where we can.

Get him assessed, OP. If it does turn out to be ADHD, the medication has been around for decades and is very effective. A lot of people are scared to try it but there’s very little risk in trying it because it wears off very quickly. If you think it could be ADHD and autism, go for the ADHD assessment first because there is no treatment for autism.

If it’s ADHD, exercise helps to some extent. Does he walk to school? If not, that might help a little.

(I know his hearing is fine)

How? Has he had his hearing assessed? Ans has he had his eyes tested?

My niece was under speech and language for years, turns out it was never a speech and language issue, she needed a hearing aid. Nothing glaringly obvious in terms of hearing impairment until a specific speech and language therapist queried it, hearing impairment diagnosed at 8. No idea how it happened, as my son had to see audiology before a SALT referral would be accepted but it did.

My 8 year old son is autistic and has poor auditory processing (assessed by a private educational psychologist) and simple strategies in terms of how school deliver information and check his understanding have really helped.