We recently surveyed parents using our Dyslexia Checklist.
There were 10 skills which were marked out of 5, (1 being poor and 5 good.)
We got a surprise!
Complete the form for your own information here
More than 80% of respondents marked their children as having 3 or less out of 5 for Processing Skills.
Why is processing so important?
Listening
When your child is listening to the teacher, for example, they have to process what is being said as it is being said. If their processing speed is slower than it should be then they cannot do that. In other words, they can not keep up with the teacher and are playing catch up all the time.
With slow processing children may misinterpret words or sounds within words they may process a word like “stay” instead of “say” this can result in them thinking the teacher is talking about “x” when in fact the teacher is talking about “y” causing them to lose concentration.
If your child cannot take in everything the teacher is saying and misinterprets words here and there then they cannot remember everything.
Now three of four cognitive skills are affected i.e. Memory, Attention, Processing.
By the end of primary school and in secondary school 80% or your child’s day is spent listening.
In secondary school children are often expected to take notes while listening. This can be a nightmare for those who are struggling to process, concentrate and remember information.
Speech
For speech we must be able to process our thoughts quickly enough to communicate effectively but more than that, to negotiate we need to think really quickly.
Children with slow processing can find it difficult to verbally tell a story often keeping it brief with safe vocabulary that can seem immature at times. Others can ramble and or go off point with the sentence and story structure lacking a sequence of a beginning, middle and end.
Reading and Reading Comprehension
Reading is language based. This is why processing is crucial for reading which starts with good phonemic awareness, decoding and vocabulary.
Phonemic Awareness is all about the accurate processing of sounds, consonant sounds, vowel sounds and blended sounds.
Your child needs good phonemic awareness to access and learn the code. Every language has a different code. English is quite a difficult language because it is not a phonetic or transparent language.
While decoding your child must engage their working memory in order to absorb the information and remember it leading to good comprehension.
Writing
Your child needs good cognitive skills for writing.
They need good processing to process their thoughts. Then they need to sequence them, remember them and write them. Good processing is important for spelling, grammar and punctuation also.
Learning
To learn, our children must be able to listen to the teacher in class, if they are older they need to make notes while listening, then they need to read those notes or their textbooks to reinforce what they have learnt in class.
Socially
Our children need good processing skills for social communications and negotiations. If your child’s processing is poor they may find making and keeping friends difficult at times.
It all starts with Processing!
Our Fast ForWord program uniquely targets and improves processing speed and accuracy while concurrently developing memory, attention and sequencing.
When these foundations have been strengthened we work on improving reading, spelling, grammar, punctuation and fluency.
Book a free appointment with us to discuss your child’s needs
What you can expect from this call –
- You will understand what your child’s priorities are
- You will see what options are available to you and your child to improve their learning and reading.
- Finally, together we will create an intervention plan for your child
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