‘Slow Processing’

[girlsmum]

Hi

Not sure if this is the right place to post this.

I came across ‘Slow Processing’ and felt my dd (13), year 8, shared many characteristics. I shared with dd’s maths teacher who agreed, but had no experience and referred dd to SEN. This was back at the beginning of the year.

SEN did a quick test with dd in the corridor/stair well leaning against the window sill and said ‘no you’re fine’. That was that.

However, dd still struggling to complete tasks, getting in a muddle and this is causing her anxiety. Now this is spilling over into an extra curricular activity dd spends a lot of time on, my heart really goes out to her.

I really don’t want to ‘label’ my dd, maybe she naturally takes longer with completing things than others. I’m just not confident the test was thorough.

As a side note, another teacher feels dd should have a ‘layover’ to cover numbers as it may help...but unfortunately lack of school funding he has been unable to follow through.

Do you have any opinions or advice?
Thank you

I would e-mail the maths teacher, the SENCo, and the Head of Year (or Head of House, or however the structure works in your dd's school) and state that you had concerns about your dd and that she potentially might have processing issues. State that you had discussed this with the math teacher at the beginning of the year, and that the maths teacher told you (s)he was going to refer dd to the SENCo.
Express surprise that, 9 months on, you are concerned that there has still been no formal assessment, and that you have had no formal contact from the SENCo. Ask them to let you know why nothing seems to have progressed in all this time, as, obviously if there is a real difficulty, then not making adjustments is going to set her even further behind.

Great advice.
Thank you, I’ll do that this morning.

Our children have a proper assessment that takes about an hour.

If she is a slow processor she will be able to get extra time in exams.

My DD1 (now 18) was thought to have slow processing in yr8 going into yr9. The school did a dyslexia test which did show she had very slow processing but not dyslexia. Turns out she has Irlens Syndrome which can present like dyslexia and she has had adjustments in school ever since including extra time in exams, coloured paper and the board put into a different background colour for her.

A quick test in a corridor sounds pretty woeful. Have any other teachers commented? I'd ask for a proper meet with the SENCO. Ask what they tested and how. It could be something other than processing, e.g.: poor working memory or dyscalculia - especially if maths is the place where it's obvious.

I wouldn't worry about 'labelling' your DD. My son has found it empowering to discover he's dyslexic. He's got extra time for his GCSE's and the teachers are much more understanding now too/ help him to find strategies. Being labelled for him has helped his confidence massively.

ps: EscapefromHubby's Irlen's idea's a good one to investigate too - ask your DD what happens when she looks at a white board, or at a page of text. Do the letters blur or move at all? If so, she might well have Irlens. To get it tested you'd need to find a specialist clinic. A lot of normal opticians don't test for it.

I’ve emailed the school so am waiting a response (our secondary school don’t answer the phone 🙄).

Ideally the extra time is what I feel dd needs. She says she has to read things over and over for things to make sense. We have also been told in the past she’s a kinaesthetic learner.

A little memory comes to mind, when dd was in Juniors, every week they had timetables test - she failed every week. I approached her teacher to ask if she could be ‘tested’ in another way, as at home she was quite confident in them. Luckily the school did work round it.

Off to google Irlens.

Thank you

There is slow processing
And working memory
And auditory processing
And dyslexia
And dyspraxia

If you are concerned ask for a more thorough test maybe backed up by providing a wider list of her difficulties to the SENCO (i.e. not just gets muddled in maths and can't remember times tables under pressure).

If she is a slow processor she will be able to get extra time in exams.
Not necessarily it depends on how low her scores are in the standardised tests which the school should be able to do.
dd doesn't receive extra time as although her processing score was significantly less than her scores in other tests it was still in the range (above 85) that was considered to be average.
However if your dd does qualify for extra time then having this established as a normal way of working as soon as possible would be helpful.