Students with slow processing speed often struggle with many academic and day-to-day tasks. How can we help them? What strategies exist?
We have found some great suggestions from Learning Works for Kids. They believe that video games and other digital media — when used mindfully and responsibly — can be powerful tools for improving children’s academic performance and cognitive skills. This is particularly true for students with learning differences like dyslexia and ADHD.
So many parents worry about how to monitor their children’s screen time, particularly as digital media diversifies and expands. Learning Works for Kids can be a great resource to help families understand the digital landscape and make the most of digital media. Here are a few suggestions from their post, Games and Apps for Kids with Slow Processing Speed.
Keep track of your time.
- Use a watch or a fitness tracker to keep track of how much time you spend on your homework.
- Try timing yourself on an app such as 30/30 and record your times in a diary.
These suggestions help students develop a more accurate sense of time, which is crucial for time management and is often an area of weakness for students with learning differences. Two other apps I like that help students track their time are Focus Booster and Time Timer.
Do puzzles.
- Puzzles are a great way to get better at processing what you see around you.
- Try real puzzles or puzzle games such as Summation.
- These can teach you great thinking skills to help you process faster.
Puzzles are a fun way for students to develop strategies to overcome slow processing speed. Be sure to look for puzzle games that don’t penalize players for having a slow processing speed. I recommend Monument Valley and Professor Layton.
Find games to help you.
- Many games can help you process information faster.
- Racing games such as Bacon Escape and action/FPS games such as Star Wars Battlefront are great for practicing processing of information.
I also love rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution for improving processing speed.
Of course, all of these options are no substitute for learning executive functioning strategies; instead, they can be used to help students understand why executive function strategies are important as well as how to cope with slow processing speed. And, when it comes to video games, it’s always important to moderate how long students play!
Do you have any suggestions for games to help students with slow processing speed? Let us know in the comments.
- Elizabeth Ross, M.A., SMARTS Media Manager