PROCESSING DEFICITS
AND WHAT THEY
LOOK LIKE IN THE CLASSROOM
AUDITORY PROCESSING
Auditory processing involves the ability to analyze and synthesize sound patterns of
language (phonological processing).
What an auditory processing deficit may look like in the classroom:
 Children who do poorly on these tasks have difficulty with phonics, structural
analysis, and spelling.
 They often cannot read their own notes.
 They have great difficulties learning a foreign language.
 They often have difficulty with short-term memory and listening.
 Often have difficulty with reading vocabulary.
 Poor spellers. Spelling requires phonemic segmentation, the ability to attend to the
detailed sequence of sounds in words.
 Poor word decoding skills due to lack of phonological awareness that impairs their
ability to segment, analyze, and synthesize speech sounds.
 Will be slower to develop word identification skills.
 Difficulty interpreting lectures.
 Difficulty understanding oral directions.
 Their ability to perceive speech under distracting conditions will be limited.
Recommendations for deficits in auditory processing:
 Place focus on phonological awareness. The tasks of sound blending and oral
phonemic segmentation (separately articulating the sounds of a word in the correct
sequence) are the most essential and closely associated with the reading process.
 For young students, encourage the use of games that manipulate the phonological
structure of words, such as rhyming games and nursery rhymes.
 Develop skill in phonological awareness through counting activities that progress
from counting the number of words in a simple sentence, to the number of syllables in
a work, to the number of sounds within a word.
 Provide visual outlines and graphic organizers for tasks involving listening.
 Give clear, direct instructions for all tasks, limited in length and complexity.
 Do not penalize the student for difficulties in reading decoding or spelling.
 Allow extra time for reading and writing activities.
 Provide the child assistance with note taking.
VISUAL PROCESSING
Visual processing involves perceiving and thinking with visual patterns.
What a visual processing deficit may look like in the classroom:
 Children who do poorly on these tasks often have difficulty with a sense of position
in space and orientation.
 They are often unaware of visual details.
 They have difficulty assembling puzzles, and lack a sense of spatial boundaries such
as fitting, packing, and assembly.
 Academic tasks most closely related to this task are art, shop and geometry.
 Socially, these children often have difficulty reading facial expressions of others, and
often misread social contextual cues. This may lead to inappropriate social behavior,
which is the result of incompetence, rather than defiance.
 Skills involved in the reading process which may be affected:
 visual closure, the ability to recognize a complete figure from fragmented stimuli;
 visual spatial relationships, the ability to perceive the position of objects in space;
 visual discrimination, the ability to perceive dominant features in different
stimuli;
 visual memory, the ability to recall the dominant feature of a stimulus of sequence
of visually presented stimuli;
 visual-motor integration, the ability to integrate vision with body movements;
 visual association, the ability to relate visually presented stimuli conceptually;
 visual-auditory integration, the ability to match serially presented visual stimuli
with auditory counterparts.
Recommendations for deficits in visual processing:
 In general, recommendations for visual processing will include activities that increase
awareness of spatial relationships, which require visual thinking.
 For younger children:
 Provide activities such as puzzles, painting, drawing, bead stringing, pegs and
pegboards, and building with blocks.
 Provide activities with manipulative toys.
 Have students arrange blocks or shapes on top of patterns.
 Have children trace geometric shapes and other forms with their fingers or use
plastic overlays with crayons.
 Have students identify separate objects in pictures.
 Have students sort shapes into categories.
 Have students bend pipe cleaners to replicate designs and figures.
 Provide experiences with a variety of geometric forms.
 For older children:
 Provide activities that require spatial organization and planning, such as paper
folding, models, and three dimensional puzzles.
 Have students complete or develop mazes for younger children to solve.
 Have students construct geometric patterns with blocks using design cards.
 Provide practice with object assembly using materials such as nuts, bolts, and
washers.
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 Provide opportunities for copying and drawing geometric patterns.
 Use simple graphic patterns when illustrating key points.
 Provide practice reading diagrams and charts.
For all children:
 They may benefit from social skills training. They need to be taught proper
interpretation of social situations, and how to recognize contextual cues. They
may benefit from practice reading facial expressions, and relating it to feelings.
 Use auditory cues with visual cues as much as possible.
LONG-TERM RETRIEVAL
Long-term retrieval involves the ability to store information and later retrieve it through
association. It is the ability to hold information in memory while attending to new
information.
What a deficit in long-term retrieval may look like in the classroom:
 A student who performs poorly on the long-term retrieval tasks may have difficulty
with paired-associate tasks, such as learning the names of letters of the alphabet or
memorizing times tables.
 These children will have difficulty getting information to “stick,” resulting in poor
retrieval of information.
 They have difficulty memorizing poems, speeches, and math facts.
Recommendations for long-term retrieval deficits:
 Sequence materials from simple to more complex.
 Provide intensive review, repetition, and overlearning at each step.
 Introduce only as many facts, words, etc., as the student is able to learn in a session.
 Provide frequent opportunities for practice and review. Provide systematic review
within a few hours of learning and review previous information in each lesson.
 Integrate acquired knowledge with new knowledge whenever possible.
 Provide the student with mnemonic aids or strategies for retention, such as the use of
verbal mediation or rehearsal (saying the information to be remembered while
looking at it).
 Provide multisensory learning. Involve visual, kinesthetic, vocal, and auditory
channels when appropriate.
 Provide immediate feedback of results.
 Provide the student with a list of steps that will help organize behavior and
subsequently, facilitate recall.
 Ensure conceptual understanding of any tasks that require operations efficiency, such
as multiplication facts.
 Before requiring rapid recall of facts, make sure the student understands the
underlying concepts.
 Teach the child that the memory process involves three stages: registration, retention,
and retrieval. Registration requires AID (attention, interest, and desire). Retention
requires the intensification of meaning and may be accomplished by using the
techniques of association, visualization, or organization. Retrieval is facilitated by
rehearsal or a cue (i.e., anything that can trigger memory recall, such as visual
imagery).
 To increase retention, teach the student to create visual images of what he or she
hears. Provide a picture to look at or a way to visualize what he has learned.
 Use graphic organizers to teach new concepts and information. When they can
picture how the ideas are interrelated, they will be able to store and retrieve them
more easily.
 Use the keyword method to help with learning new vocabulary. Three steps are used:
recoding, relating, and retrieving. For recording, have the child change the new
vocabulary word into a known word, the key word, that has a similar sound and is
easily pictured. For relating, have the child, associate the keyword with the definition
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of the new vocabulary word through a mental image or a sentence. For retrieving,
have the student think of the keyword, remembering the association, and then
retrieving the definition.
Have the child substitute a word concept for memorizing abstract material. When he
or she hears a word that seems abstract, have him think of something that sounds like
or reminds him of the word and can be pictured mentally. Teach him how to form a
link, or another association, with the next word or concept that he is trying to
remember.
Teach her a simple strategy to aid in recall. One example is the PAR formula, Picture
it, Associate it, and Review it. This may be combined with the USA formula guide
for clear visualization: U=Unusual, unforgettable; S=See the picture s vividly as you
can using as many senses as you can; A=Action, see the item happening with action.
Provide practice in systematic storing and retrieving of information.
SHORT-TERM MEMORY
Short-term memory involves the ability to recall and use information within a short
period of time.
What a deficit in short-term memory may look like in the classroom:
 Students with low short-term memory often experience difficulty in following oral
directions and remembering information long enough to process it for
comprehension.
 The student may not enjoy tasks that require listening.
 Difficulty holding spoken word strings in memory and therefore have difficulty with
sentence comprehension.
 Poor at processing phonetic information.
 Deficits in fluent word identification.
 Difficulty in spelling. They have difficulty maintaining words in short-term memory
long enough to encode the complete phonemic string.
 Deficit may influence development of math computational skills.
 Difficulty taking notes.
 Difficulty recalling sequences.
Recommendations for deficits in short-term memory:
 For students who have difficulty following directions:
 Use short simple sentences when speaking to the student. Be sure to keep verbal
instructions at the student’s vocabulary level.
 Present one instruction at a time.
 Stand near and look directly at the student when giving directions. If needed,
place a hand on the student’s arm or shoulder.
 Ask the student to paraphrase instructions or to repeat the directions to the teacher
before beginning an assignment.
 Repeat directions as many times as necessary.
 Write specific directions and assignments on the chalkboard for the student to
copy. Or provide them with specific written directions.
 Provide the student with assignments written on index cards.
 Have a responsible peer record assignments for the student.
 Have assignments on a tape recorder so the student can hit the pause button or
replay the assignment as many times as needed.
 Create an assignment notebook for the student to record all homework and test
dates. In some cases a parent or teacher will need to monitor the recording and
completion of assignments.
 Check frequently to ensure that the student understands the task.
 Record key words on the board when giving assignments or group directions.
 Seat the child near the front of the class to reduce distractions.
 For students who have difficulty listening to orally presented material:
 Encourage the student to tape-record class lectures to be played back as soon as
possible. The student should take notes while listening to the tape.
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Provide practice for the student in retelling events or stories. For example, read
the student a short story and ask the student to repeat the events in sequential
order or to identify the major story components.
 Use visual aids combined with verbal instruction whenever possible. For
example, when giving directions or explaining terms, point to the area of the page
or chalkboard that contains the relevant information. For many students, added
visual, tactile, and contextual input enhances auditory recall ability. Write key
terms on the board when giving directions.
 Make sure the child has learned common instructions such as “first”, “next”, and
“finally.”
 Teach active listening. For example, teach the child to observe a speaker’s verbal
cues by attending to keywords that signal that important information is about to
be given, such as: “first,”, “more important,” or “in summary.”
Students with difficulty in short-term memory may need additional review of material to
aid retention:
 Teach specific memory strategies and techniques that will improve immediate recall,
such as the use of verbal rehearsal, grouping or chunking of information, making
visual images, and mnemonics. The memory strategies should be taught within a
context for which they may be used.
 Teach specific learning or study strategies for each area of difficulty.
 Ensure that the student continually reviews vocabulary words, math facts, or any
information that requires extended practice for retention. Materials should be
reviewed within hours of learning and then daily until mastery is insured.
 Provide for overlearning by using intensive, systematic drill with index cards or with
a computer.
PROCESSING SPEED
Processing speed involves the ability to perform relatively automatic cognitive tasks
quickly, especially when under pressure to maintain focused attention.
What a processing speed deficit look like in the classroom:
 Difficulty sustaining sustained visual attention.
 Fatigues quickly while working.
 Difficulty working rapidly under timed conditions.
 Difficulty with tasks that require automatic processing.
 Poor reading speed because they can’t process the symbols quickly enough to
enhance decoding and comprehension.
 Lack of automaticity with math facts.
Recommendations for students with processing speed deficits:
 Provide clearly duplicated worksheets that contain only a few problems and plenty of
white space. Double-space all printed directions. If needed, type words in large
letters with extra spaces in between. With some students, the use of large-print books
may improve performance.
 Seat the student in the front row near the chalkboard for all copying activities.
 Eliminate copying or limit the amount of material that a student is required to copy
from the chalkboard or from a textbook. Do not require speed or accuracy in
copying.
 Provide practice with simple copying activities. Chart performance and reward the
student for improved speed and accuracy.
 Cut a window or box in a piece of cardboard so the student can frame and separate
each problem as needed or have the student cover the part of the page that is not
being worked on.
 Point to all words and phrases while reading from the board.
 To develop visual recall and perceptual speed, have the student reproduce words or
phrases that are flashed on a computer or flash cards. Gradually reduce exposure
time.
 Allow the student to use an index card or finger for keeping his or her place while
reading.
 Encourage the use of graph paper in mathematics.
 Extend the time for completing assignments.
 Provide ample time for responding on written tasks.
 Shorten assignments so that they may be accomplished in a reasonable time period.
 Use visual clues to organize worksheets, such as instructing the student to place each
answer in a box or folding the paper to make boxes.
 Recommend visual tracking exercises or computer games that require rapid visual
scanning.
 Have the student copy letters, word sequences, or sentences using a computer.
 Teach the use of verbal mediation when copying materials. The student should say
each number, letter, or word as it is transferred from one place to another.
 Reduce the quantity of work in favor of quality. The goal is to have the child
demonstrate that the concept is understood.
LANGUAGE PROCESSING
Language processing is a measure of linguistic competency, which includes expressive
and receptive language.
What a student with a language processing deficit may look like in the classroom:
 Difficulty following directions.
 Difficulty understanding compound and complex sentences.
 Poor written expression.
 Poor basic reading skills and reading comprehension.
 Difficulty solving word problems in mathematics.
 May use vague pronoun referents, immature or nonspecific vocabulary, or have poor
sentence structure in conversation.
 The student may not contribute much to discussions and may respond in short, simple
sentences.
 May appear disorganized when relating a story or report events in an erroneous
sequence.
 When asked a question, as student may demonstrate some knowledge of the topic, but
not be referentially specific enough to communicate an appropriate response. In other
cases, a student may not be able to determine when enough has been said.
Recommendations for students with language processing deficits:
 Obtain recommendations from the speech/language pathologist on methods and
strategies for enhancing oral language in the classroom and for strategies to facilitate
oral comprehension.
 Demonstrate or model what you want he student to do, talking through the task while
performing it. Have the student talk through the task while doing it.
 Encourage the student to use gestures if he or she cannot think of the necessary words
for expression.
 Provide plenty of opportunities for verbal responses.
 Increase oral fluency by having the student say as many words in a category as he or
she can think of within a minute time period.
 Provide as much time as necessary for a student to respond to questions.
 Have the student orally describe visual materials, such as a picture or poster.
 Incorporate learning materials, enrichment activities, and games that will stimulate
language development and encourage listening and speaking.
 Encourage both parents and teachers to read aloud to the student.
 Explain and provide activities with important vocabulary words prior to assigning a
chapter. Ensure that new words are both pronounced and used correctly.
 Teach content-related knowledge before requiring a student to perform a task, such as
reading a story.
 Avoid fill-in-the-blank tests for students with word retrieval problems.
 Pair the student with a peer who will encourage and facilitate verbal communication.
 Use the student’s interests and nonacademic and academic strengths as conversational
topics.
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Provide visual reinforcement for all listening activities, such as outlines, study guides,
pictures, movies, and graphs. Ensure that the visual information clearly illustrates the
auditory information.
Have the student sit close to the teacher or in the front of the classroom.
When teaching sight words and spelling words, ensure that the student understands
the meaning of the words.
Help the student internalize a structure for telling stories, such as using story
grammars to organize thoughts for speaking.
Use expansion and elaboration to show a student how to produce a more complex
sentence and add a little more detail or context to the idea.
Use reading and written language activities to help build oral language expression and
comprehension.
Provide exemptions from foreign language classes.
Encourage and reinforce development of nonverbal and nonacademic strengths.
A psychological process is defined as a set of mental operations that a learner must use to
transform, access, or manipulate information. Processing occurs in many ways and
adequate processing of information presented in the school-learning environment is a
necessary component for learning. A deficit in a psychological process is considered to
be a relatively enduring feature of an individual’s cognitive skills that limits the ability to
perform specific academic learning tasks. Disorders of processing may manifest
themselves differently at different developmental levels.
Areas in which processing disorders may occur include:
 Auditory
 Visual
 Visual-Motor
 Long-Term Retrieval
 Short-Term Memory
 Processing Speed
 Language
VISUAL-MOTOR PROCESSING
Visual-motor processing is the way in which children integrate or coordinate their visual
perceptual (interpretation of visual stimuli) and motor
(finger and hand movement) abilities.
What a student with a visual-motor processing deficit may look like in the classroom:
 Difficulty copying written material.
 Difficulty focusing on specific visual stimuli.
 May fatigue quickly while working on written assignments.
Recommendations for students with visual-motor processing deficits:
 Use multisensory instruction to the greatest degree possible.
 Limit the amount of material that is to be copied from the chalkboard or textbooks.
Worksheets are a good alternative.
 Reduce visual stimuli on a worksheet or in a book by covering all of the page except
the activity on which the student is working.
 Provide math problems on graph paper, so that the numbers are in columns.
 Modifications may be necessary in testing. Exams may need to be untimed, questions
may need to be read aloud, and the student may need to respond orally.
 Highlight or underline important words, phrases, etc., in the student’s assignments
that require reading.
 Be sure dittos are clear, with bold, well spaced print, preferable typed rather than
handwritten. Worksheets and tests need to be uncluttered, with wide margins and
plenty of space between problems or questions. Avoid tests in which there are long
lists of items to be matched since this format requires highly developed visual
tracking. Multiple choice items should be placed vertically. Avoid negatively stated
questions, especially in true-false format. Capitalize or underline key words, such as
ALWAYS, NEVER, NOT.
 Reduce visual stimuli in the classroom whenever possible. When doing board work,
allow him/her to sit close to the board, thus reducing distractions (between the student
and the board) and increasing acuity.
 Provide the student with shorter tasks, but provide more of them. Increase the length
of the tasks as the student demonstrates success.
 Be aware that visual tracking difficulties will adversely affect performance on tests
which have separate answer sheets (such as Scan-Tron tests) or on tests, which
require matching of items in different columns. Possibly oral testing, or having the
student dictate answers to a volunteer could be substituted.
 Remedial activities appropriate for developing visual-motor and perceptual skills
include: dot-to-dot pictures, coloring, matching and sorting objects by shape, color,
size, etc., paper-folding, and cutting, “hidden pictures: and map reading. Games such
as Concentration help develop visual memory.