TPP 019: Slow Processing Speed—What It Is and How to Support Kids Who Have It

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What is slow processing speed and how does it show up in children?

Dr. Ellen Braaten 0:00
So you can have this wonderful ability to sort of think deeply about something, but when it comes time to actually write something quickly or take notes or do a simple page of math facts, you're struggling with that and that's frustrating for you. And then it's frustrating for your teachers and parents who think like, Well, wait a minute, like this should be really easy for you. So you the child has frustration all around him.
Debbie Reber 0:25
Welcome to the Tilt Parenting Podcast, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber, and I'm really excited about today's show because we are going to be talking all about processing speed. Slow processing speed is a challenge faced by so many differently wired kids and presents alongside many different neuro differences, including Dyslexia, giftedness, ADHD, sensory issues, and more. So today I'm sharing with you an expert on all things processing speed to break it all down for you. Dr. Ellen Broughton is the Associate Director of the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital, Director of the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program at Mass General, and an assistant professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School.
Debbie Reber 1:15
She is widely recognized as an expert in the field of pediatric neuropsychological and psychological assessment, especially in the areas of assessing learning disabilities and attention disorders. Yeah. Her most recent book is entitled Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up, Help Your Child Overcome Slow Processing Speed and Succeed in a Fast Paced World. And I can tell you right now, Ellen knows her stuff. If you have a child who struggles with slow processing speed in any area of his or her life, I have a feeling you're gonna find this conversation as fascinating as I did.

How does Dr. Ellen Braaten’s background inform her expertise on processing speed?

Debbie Reber 1:49
Thanks for listening to the Tilt Parenting Podcast. To learn more about Tilt, visit www.tiltparenting.com. Welcome to the show, Ellen. Oh, it's great to be here. Today we're going to be talking about something that impacts many families in the TILD community, processing speed, or more specifically, slow processing speed. But before we get into that, I would love it if you could just take a few minutes to tell us about your background and the kind of work that you do as a child psychologist.
Dr. Ellen Braaten 2:20
So I started out actually uh right out of undergraduate as a special education teacher. So I taught uh special education for six years and then went back to get a degree in psychology and specialize in neuropsychological assessment. So my area of interest is in sort of the crossover between school problems and sort of like very real world kind of problems and neuropsychological. which is looking at how the brain, you know, how understanding how the brain impacts what we do or getting information about our functioning in different areas of life, like language and visual motor skills and problem solving skills. Um and that's what neuropsychology informs. So I've been interested in that area of um education and neuropsychology.
Debbie Reber 3:07
Very cool. So tell me then, I know that you work with the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, which looks like an amazing resource. And you're on you're one of the experts at understood.org and so kind of seems like you have a lot going on and you're working in a lot of different capacities with these great organizations.
Dr. Ellen Braaten 3:27
I do. And and one of the other things that I do at Massachusetts General Hospital is direct a uh program, an a assessment center, um, called the Learning and Emotional Assessment Program. So I have a little bit of I I I am able to do clinical work with families and kids and direct a program and then also have become very active in um getting the information out to the public through understood and through the Clay Center. So it's been great to be able to do that.
Debbie Reber 3:52
Yeah, the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, I spent a lot of time on the site today.

What are the core components of processing speed (input, processing, output)?

Debbie Reber 3:56
It seems like a fantastic resource and understood dot org as well.

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