Processing Delay

Processing Delay

Certain individuals on the spectrum can have a processing delay. This means that when someone says something to them then it can take a while to respond. I don’t know if you are old enough to remember using dial up to connect to the internet? Now when the internet was new we would click on a link and just wait and wait and wait for the picture to load and because the internet was new we just accepted that this was the way, so we would just wait. Now we live in a time of broadband and high speed internet we will not accept any waiting time for the internet to show us the same picture and if there is a delay we impatiently repeatedly tap on the mouse. This does not help except fuel our impatience and then we are greeted with more than one page opening. For some people on the spectrum this is what it can be like talking to neuro typicals. Imagine Billy takes ten seconds to fully process what his mom is saying to him E.g. Mom “Billy it’s time for bed” (time passes in seconds) one, two, three, Billy is processing moms request and trying to make sense of it. If he gets to the count of ten he will respond. Mom speaks again; Billy has hit the reset button and is starting from one again. Mom is getting wound up now as she sees the lack of response as defiance. “Billy it’s time for bed”, Billy hits the reset button again one, two, three Mom starts to get angrier. “Billy if you don’t go to bed now you will lose your PlayStation” BOOM, Billy explodes. I mentioned earlier that this doesn’t apply to everybody but if you do experience this, give this a try. When you ask your child to do something, in your head count up to ten and see what happens. You may find that all your child needs is a little time to respond and then hey presto they do it.

I should point out that some individuals don't have a processing delay as such rather they have too much information to process i.e. not sure what to focus on so have to take it all in and when they have figured out what is happening they respond. But not quick enough for the neuro typical.