What is a Slow Processing Speed & How it Can Affect Students

Students who experience difficulties with processing speed are often not "found out" for a while as they have learned to overcome their challenges, either consciously or subconsciously.

However, as students progress through school and material becomes increasingly complex and sizeable, exam results can often not reflect either course work nor student capacity.

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[Reggiegigas]

This women is the only person that can discuss the inadequacies that I have and not make me feel
like it is a bad thing or makes me less of a person. Thank you miss!

[chapzer]

I've always felt slower than other people in school and I really feel like this is it, people always see me as smart and knowledgeable but I've always finished test last and I feel extremely pressured to understand a question.

[santostracey]

For me, processing information slowly not only affected me in my studies, it crippled my everyday living as I was growing up. As a kid, if I were to watch a movie, and someone asked me for a brief summary of what I JUST watched, I wouldn't be able to answer because, for some reason, information literally comes from one ear, and goes out the other. It's such an unfair trait of myself. It made me feel so stupid not being able to talk about something that was showed or explained to me.

[mamadoubah]

The first time I hear someone explaining my real struggle: avoiding group study, spending extra time updating notes, spending extra time on assignment, spending extra time preparing for exams, test anxiety, time pressure, panic, stupid mistakes, ... imagine this struggle as an engineering student 😩

[KarenDodo]

I never understood this about myself, and never really understood why I couldn't understand the lesson/story/lecture... until I'd heard it a second time, but this resonates so much and I realise how helpful this knowledge would have been. Not too late though for my daughter who is very much like me in this way

[kendrickf-d]

I hate it when someone taking shit about about me and when I have something to say back, its too late and they're not listening anymore.

[kathyurrely]

This becomes a death sentence, with age. It means you are hated by the entire world. People believe you are lazy. You are are in a lifelong prison, with no possibility of Parole.

[SJ-qdhm]

For those of us struggling with this, I suggest looking into a disorder called Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT)! It's not an officially recognized condition, but it's believed to be related to the inattentive form of ADHD and is characterized by slow processing speed, frequent daydreaming, being easily confused, lethargy, etc. Some studies suggest that the ADHD drug Strattera may help and some people on the r/SCT subreddit report anecdotal benefits with stimulant medication. Hope this helps!

[Sophia-ocnt]

I always knew i was a little slow in picking things up and found it difficult to finish exams or keep up with the rest of my class. I would wonder why it would take me hours on end to complete a piece of homework, whereas it would only take someone else a few minutes. Despite this, i put in a lot of hard work and always got good grades, and have always typically been good at English, so when my mum would complain that i was struggling or needed extra time in exams, the teachers would give me a basic test and declare me as fine. With my GCSES approaching i decided it was time i got real, outside testing, and low and behold, i was told i had a very high IQ which was masking my slow processing.I now have just completed my GCSES with my 25% extra time and am hoping for the best. The time helped massively and would really reccommend getting tested if you suspect you need extra time, as in most cases, you do!

[saderyan]

This is me to a T! last year I achieved 3 high A grades in my English coursework and ended up with a C overall because I could only complete half of my test in time! It's something I've ALWAYS struggled with and been ridiculed by teachers for (even since primary school) and now work colleges. I'm currently practicing for my upcoming biology exams and I'm still finding that the main reasons that the marks I'm getting are so low is because I have to rush the whole paper in order to attempt to answer all questions within an hour. This has been a problem for as long as I can remember!! Thank you for this information! x

[SarcasticCupcake]

i have been professionally diagnosed with slow cognitive processing skills since i was in grade 4, and it;s only gotten worse since i got older. im in year 10 now and it's been really hard for me to keep up. this is ecpecially bad for me since i also have a few mental disorders such as inattentive ADHD, depression, GAD ( Generalised Anxiety Disorder), SAD (Social Anxiety Disorder), and i'm on the autism spectrum slightly. my point is, with all my mental disorders, the cognitive processing tends to cause a lot of clashes wit people, since they don't understand why i'm not understanding, and i don't understand why they don't understand that i don't understand... (wow that was more confusing than intended lol) which leads to many confused teacher which just end up putting more pressure on me to work faster, but i can't... i'll stop rambling now, but it's just very hard for me. at least this video helped me to understand more about my cognitive processing skils.

[meinungabundance]

And no again: this is NOT about being distracted under stress (missing steps and such), it is about not getting it, not grasping the concept quickly.

[michaelkasper]

IMO if you struggle with brain fog you should take dissociation disorder (e.g. disorder) into account as well as anxiety disorders...

[coldminded]

I was always like that... At school most of the time I finished tests last or almost last but I scored better than average, in best 30% of student group. Being at uni I remember when I lived with 2 flatmates they passed their school exams (before going to uni) exceptionally well, super smart people, very fast thinkers and all. So we were reading the same papers, preparing for exam, they both read it 2 times while I was able to read it only once but I got the same grade as one of them and abit higher grade than the other. It was very hard for me at uni, half of the time I wasnt able to fully get the information professors told me, only being at home reading the info alone I got the understanding in me. Now at work I process new information in the same manner - slowly but when I understand it fully I can do it in normal speed. My work needs a lot of concentration which was very hard thing to do at first, I made lots of mistakes. But then I made a list of steps I need to take to do my job properly and it worked, it took a load of my brain. Also I dont like being in bigger group of people because my though processing is slower so it takes abit more time to come up with what to say about ideas or explanation to things (if I want to give a proper answer) so most of the time I just dont talk. Also most of the time it feels that all conversations in groups are just to not be in silence, nothing meaningful happens, noone shares personal information, just a fasade talk. I prefer one on one conversation better because I like to talk it deep and personal and to understand a person and then I can talk in my pace. It's very inconvenient when arguing. Also my short term memory is very low. I get confused easily. It sucks. Can you give me some advice?

[vhira]

I’m diagnosed with slow processing speed and my psychologist recommended me to do brain training games and puzzles to improve my processing speed.

[uajw]

People always tell me this and they I keep asking more questions because I do not understand. They say things like are you blind, your slow, someone even told me I don’t know if you’re acting stupid to be funny or you actually are. It makes me feel sad. When I was in school I did not talk to no one I kind of kept to myself. In school it seemed like all the other kids picked up something right away and I never even got to fully understand it. I failed twice because I did not have anough credits then I went to alternative school where you get pass just to show up so I did graduate

[hotshot]

Thanks. I've had this problem for a long time. I have high functioning autism. But sometimes i've felt that there was something else that was slowing me down and i couldn't figure out what.

[Bruna]

This was a really great explanation & advice. Thank You!

[manonbrenner]

You are the only one who i feel 100% comfortable watching this video about a slow processing speed.

[monticat]

What a brilliant talk, wish more people understood this.. thank you