Justin, 10, is struggling in school. Since midway through the third grade, he has had a variety of problems.
Teachers say he is lazy, that he really doesn't prepare at home - even though he says he does. They say he has trouble with authority figures and that he won't settle down for tests, proving that he is "passive aggressive."One teacher urged her colleagues to "stop making an emotion thing out of this and consider what must be limited intelligence."
Yet another staff member said "Justin's disorganization is the sign on the surface of massive inner confusion and psychiatric disturbance."
Justin is a curious boy with an ever-present twinkle in his eye. He wants to be a stockbroker when he grows up, like his dad. He seems eternally optimistic that he'll do better in school. His family is healthy and supportive.
In spite of all that is positive, Justin repeatedly misses the point at school. During "quiet reading", he appears interested and absorbed. Yet during "round table", when the children talk about what they have read, Justin recalls only isolated facts.
His teacher says "the psychologist gave him an oral reading test and he read at a fifth grade level. He reads unfamiliar words easily. He has no trouble with phonics. He doesn't have a reading problem."
Both of Justin's teachers are well respected. They teach clearly, using the blackboard extensively with all subjects. They give their fourth graders handouts that review new concepts, followed by practice questions and problems. Most importantly, their approaches are fun for most of the children.
Until recently, Justin seemed very focused on his teachers and what they were writing on the blackboard. Yet subsequent class discussions again showed that Justin "missed the big picture time and time again, only picking up interesting new words or phrases," as his teacher put it.
Recently Justin has started looking around, talking and distracting his classmates. This is because he is trying to avoid the terrible confusion and helplessness he feels.
This youngster has a visual processing disorder. He is learning disabled. His auditory process is also limited, although not as weak as his ability to put together information that he has read into logical sequences.
Processing difficulties are complicated and widely misunderstood. They block understanding and performance in children with normal vision and hearing and high intelligence. Children with processing disorders - auditory and visual - are most often positive, healthy children like Justin, from supportive families.
Children with processing disorders are often seen as disturbed. Justin's IQ scores are all near 115, placing him in the high average range, but some staff members reasoned that he is intellectually limited. Other processing handicapped children, because their poor performances are surprising and frustrating, without behavior problems, are labeled "passive aggressive."
In fact, processing difficulties are hard for experts to understand because they can be the result of underdeveloped or complicated brain structure or of emotional disturbance. Most frequently the problem is a true learning disability that is neurologically based.
There is presently debate among clinicians about whether medicine might help. If medicine can help with emotional confusion like schizophrenia, could it also help with learning disability-processing confusion? if medicine can help with hyperactivity, couldn't it also help focusing to a point that processing would be made easier?
There are no firm conclusions yet; just questions.
Justin, as it turns out, is an experiential interpersonal learner. He has shown his teachers that if he has the opportunity to stop periodically, and talk with his classmates about the classroom learning, he can do much better.
"It helps when they use a kids' language to explain it," he says.
His teachers are both amazed and frustrated with Justin's solution.
"It's very disruptive to stop every 10 minutes and let them talk," his arithmetic teacher says. "It's a bit like chaos. But he got a C on last week's quiz and an A this week. Maybe it's more important that this child creates a way that he can learn than it is to be so advanced."