7 Powerful Strategies To Improve Processing Speed

• Help students to learn memory strategies so that they can secure learning and access information from their memory banks at a faster pace.
• Play games that require players to work quickly in a time limit. Here are a few of my personal favorites.
• Rapid Automatic Naming and Processing Speed Activities
• MPower
• Executive Functioning Activities Library
• Spot It
• Hey What’s the Big Idea
• Blink

• Use online test preparation sites like Quizlet that can help students practice the content so that the brain develops the myelin sheath needed to transmit information along the nerves. Quizlet even offers a few game-like activities (Gravity and Match) where students can try to improve their speed of processing with the information they are learning.
• Use a metronome or play upbeat music or a timer. A metronome is a device that produces a beat, a click, or other sound at regular and consistent intervals. Slow beats can be calming, and a fast beat can increase processing speed and energy level. The trick is to use a metronome that allows a student to pick their own speed and sound preferences. If you are trying to increase processing speed, then the metronome can be increased slowly over time. To learn more about this as well as online metronome options CLICK HERE.  In addition, a timer can be used to motivate some learners to stay on task and increase speed of processing. What’s more, if a student enjoys competing against themselves, then tasks can be broken into chunks and students can try to improve their speed of completion for each chunk.
• Develop the weak cognitive processing areas that slow down learning. When we make sense of the information that we see and hear, many people with slow processing struggle with weak visual and/or auditory processing.  To address any deficit areas of processing, one can do activities to exercise these skills.  We offer cognitive based products that address:
• Visual processing (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). 
• Auditory processing  (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). 
• Executive functioning Activities Library  (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). 
• Working memory  (many of these activities can be timed to improve processing speed). 
• Teach students efficient ways of completing tasks. Switching back and forth between assignments, for example, is a very inefficient way to complete homework. Instead, one can teach students the benefits of maintaining their attention on a single task until it is finished.
• Help learners manage distractions that pull their attention away from their work. For example, pings from social media, bleeps from a mobile phone or background noise from a TV or computer device can distract attention and slow processing speed. Therefore, helping students to create distraction-free environments can help them to focus their attention and improve processing speed so that they can get through assignments at a faster pace while improving their learning capacity.
• Help student overcome anxiety that is associated with learning or taking tests.  Anxiety gets in the way of and slows processing of information.  To learn some strategies, CLICK HERE.

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When processing speed is documented to be a significant deficit and it impacts a student’s academic achievement, students can get reasonable accommodations as defined in an IEP or 504 plan. The following are a list of possibilities:

• Provide extended time for tests and assignments. 
• Offer instruction at a slower pace and check for understanding. 
• Provide a copy of the teacher’s notes. 
• Give fewer homework problems. 
• Allow extended time on standardized tests such as the ACTs and SATs. 
• Help the student to use assistive technology such as voice to text, text to voice, and organizational apps such as Google Keep and Inspiration. 
• Monitor the students planning, time management and organizational skills. 

If you would like to learn about other reasonable accomodations, CLICK HERE.

I hope you found this helpful.

Cheers, Erica