Improving Working Memory and Processing Speed
By Inderbir Kaur Sandhu, Ph.D
Q:
My 6 year old son took the WISC-IV and scored the following: VCI 140,
PRI 135, WMI 99, PSI 97 with a FSIQ of 127 and GAI of 146. He qualified
for the gifted program at school and is going to take the Stanford Binet
next week to see if he qualifies for the highly gifted program.
My question is: since he is testing as both gifted (Verbal Comprehension
& Perceptual Reasoning) and learning disabled (Working Memory &
Processing Speed), how concerned should I be and what can I do to
correct his areas of deficiency? The psychologist recommended additional
testing and counselling. This is extremely expensive. Certainly, if that
is the best option, then we will find a way to afford it. But are there
things I can do at home to strengthen these areas (i.e. games or drills)?
Or should I take a wait-and-see approach until it begins to affect his
school performance? I've searched online but just can't seem to figure
out what all of this MEANS. Thank you!
A:
The Working Memory Index (WMI) assesses the ability to hold new
information in short-term memory, concentrate, and manipulate that
information to produce some result or reasoning processes. It is
important in higher-order thinking, learning, and achievement. It can
tap concentration, planning ability, cognitive flexibility, and
sequencing skill, but is sensitive to anxiety as well. It is an
important component of learning and achievement, and ability to
self-monitor.
The Processing Speed Index (PSI) assesses the abilities to focus
attention and quickly scan, discriminate between, and sequentially order
visual information. It requires persistence and planning ability, but is
sensitive to motivation, difficulty working under a time pressure, and
motor coordination. It is related to reading performance and
development. It is related to Working Memory, in that increased
processing speed can decrease the load placed on working memory, while
decreased processing speed can impair the effectiveness of Working
Memory. This is why in most cases when is child low on PS, s/he would
most likely perform similarly on WM.
When the scores clearly indicate, I am not sure why further testing is
required unless it is a diagnostic test to determine the type of
learning disability. With admission into the gifted programme, I would
think that the school should be able to help him with his weak areas -
do find out from the school what they can do to help. Of course there
are ways you can help improve his working memory and processing speed at
home. This is important, as it would help his school performance.
First, you would need to understand the problems with low WM and PS. It
is clearly one of the reasons that children struggle in school. AS in
the case of your son, he is seen as
Twice Exceptional being gifted and at the same time has a learning
disability. However, it does impact children's relationships as they
often define children's feelings about themselves. In school, WM and PS
impact alertness, learning, expression, social adjustment, academic
identity, emotional comfort, etc. At home, WM and PS impact homework,
chores, relationships, recreation (sports and games), self-concept, and
so on.
To help with first you would need to determine the source of problems to
tailor interventions to the your son's needs. Let us look at his PS
concerns. Is it because he is not “activated”? This can be due to
emotional factors (E.g., When working on a task, he says that it is too
much). For this, you would simply need to provide encouragement,
support, help on how to get started on a task and so on. If it is
related to cognitive factors (E.g., When working on a task, he says that
he does not even know where to begin), you would need to develop a plan,
break it down, use graphic organisers, etc. If there are focus/attention
problems (for children with attentional concerns), you would need to
find ways to reduce the distractions, provide white noise, prompt him
when he drifts, provide incentives for completion of work, and so on. If
there are working memory problems provide him templates, word banks,
encourage questions, and provide gentle reminders. If there are activity
interferences, you would need to provide him opportunities for movement,
fidget objects, gum chewing/candy sucking, etc. Other methods are such
as increasing time to complete tests, eliminating the unnecessary
(reduce number of tasks necessary to evidence competence), monitor time
spent on homework.
To help with WM concerns, there are some softwares that can assist
children (Assistive Technology for students). Find out what the school
has. Some of the more popular methods include teaching children to use
associative cues or mnemonic device, teaching children to transform
information from one modality to another (e.g., from verbal to a diagram
or from visual to verbal), and teaching them to question any directions,
explanations, and instructions they may not understand. Other methods
include teaching students to deliver increasingly long verbal messages,
how to organize information into smaller units, note taking and
outlining, highlighting and summarising information using resources in
the environment to recall information (notes, textbooks, pictures,
etc.). You can also teach you son to practice memory skills by engaging
in activities that are purposeful, practicing repetition of information,
engaging in memory games and activities.
You can also use Cogmed Working Memory Training to improve his WM. This
is a computer-based solution for attention problems caused by poor
working memory. Cogmed's research indicates strong evidence that
approximately 20 hours of computerized WM training over a 5-week period
produced gains in this important executive function and in other
executive functions that were not the specific focus of training. These
benefits were evident immediately following training and remained
evident 3 months later, even though no further training had occurred.
Some good sites on activities for both PS & WM:
http://www.todaysparent.com/improve-your-childs-memory
http://ecbiz108.inmotionhosting.com/~stsmcc5/Documents/Samplepages.pdf
Good luck!
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