Some children are natural communicators. They speak in full sentences from an early age, ask insightful questions, and explain their thinking with clarity and depth. You might hear them described as articulate, bright, or advanced. But when it comes to getting their ideas onto paper or finishing everyday tasks at home or in the classroom, they may struggle to keep up.

This can be puzzling for both adults and children. A child who seems intellectually ahead might fall behind when it’s time to write or complete a task within a set time. One explanation lies in a particular cognitive profile: strong verbal comprehension combined with a slower processing speed. Understanding this pattern can make a big difference in how we support and work with these children.

What does this profile involve?

In a cognitive assessment, we often look at different aspects of thinking and learning. Two areas that often stand out in this profile are:

• Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI): how well a child understands language, reasons with words, and expresses complex ideas
• Processing Speed Index (PSI): how efficiently a child can take in visual information and respond, particularly in timed tasks that involve fine motor skills like copying or writing

When a child has a VCI in the Extremely High range (for example, 130 or above) and a PSI in the Average range (around 100), a gap can emerge between how they think and how they perform in practical or time-limited settings. This is not a matter of intelligence or effort, but of how their brain processes different types of information.

How this shows up day to day

Children with this profile may:

• Come up with advanced, creative ideas but find it hard to get them down on paper
• Take longer than peers to complete worksheets or writing tasks
• Avoid writing altogether or freeze up when facing a blank page
• Produce work that doesn’t reflect the richness of their thinking
• Appear inconsistent, doing well in verbal discussions but struggling with written output
• Prefer talking to adults or older children, as their ideas are often more aligned with older peers

Often, these children are not disruptive. Because they may be quiet, compliant, or highly verbal, the gap between their thinking and output may be easy to overlook.

The emotional impact

Children are often very aware of the gap between what they know and what they can produce. Over time, this can lead to:

• Frustration or anger during writing tasks
• Avoidance or procrastination, especially when they feel they won’t do well
• Perfectionism, where they struggle to begin or finish tasks unless they feel they can get it “just right”
• Feeling misunderstood or even doubting their own abilities
• Anxiety or school-related stress, especially in upper primary and high school when written output increases

These children may not say they’re struggling, but their experience of learning can be tiring and discouraging without the right support.

What helps

For Parents:
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• Allow extra time for everyday tasks
  Children with slower processing speeds often need more time to get started and complete tasks. This might include getting ready in the morning, packing their school bag, or completing homework. Try to reduce time pressure where possible.
  
• Break tasks into smaller, manageable steps
  Instead of giving broad instructions like "clean your room" or "finish your homework," guide your child through each part. Breaking tasks down helps reduce overwhelm and builds a sense of achievement.
  
• Encourage verbal expression before writing
  If your child is struggling to start a written task, ask them to talk through their ideas first. You can even jot down what they say to help them see their ideas taking shape.
  
• Use tools and supports at home
  Try checklists, timers, or visual schedules to help your child stay on track with multi-step routines like getting ready for school or completing chores.
  
• Offer choice and flexibility
  Let your child choose how they want to complete a task when possible — for example, typing instead of writing, or drawing a diagram instead of writing a paragraph. This builds autonomy and reduces resistance.
  
• Watch for signs of frustration
  If your child becomes easily upset when tasks feel hard or slow, take a break, offer reassurance, and return to it later. Emotional regulation support is just as important as academic help.
  
• Celebrate effort, not just outcome
  Focus on the thinking and perseverance your child is showing, rather than only the finished product. This builds confidence and reinforces a growth mindset.
  
• Talk about how their brain works
  Help your child understand that everyone’s brain is different. A slower pace doesn't mean they're not clever.
• Communicate with the school
  Let teachers know what you’ve observed. A collaborative approach can make a big difference.

For Teachers:
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• Adjust time expectations
  Allow additional time for writing and reduce time-based pressure where possible.
• Accept different formats
  Encourage verbal responses, drawings, typing, or mind maps if these better reflect the student’s thinking.
• Focus on depth, not volume
  Ask for fewer responses that are well thought out, rather than lots of rushed work.
• Use visual scaffolds
  Provide tools like writing templates, graphic organisers, or sentence starters to help students structure their ideas.
• Check in privately
  A child with this profile may be working very hard to keep up. Quiet encouragement and curiosity about their experience can go a long way.

A more helpful way to see it

This isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a pattern to understand. When we recognise that a child’s brilliant ideas might outpace their ability to show them on paper, we stop assuming they’re not trying hard enough or reaching their potential. Instead, we meet them where they are and support them to thrive on their terms.

If you think your child might have this kind of learning profile, a cognitive assessment can provide helpful insight. It can clarify their strengths, identify the areas that need support, and guide how to adjust both expectations and strategies — at school and at home.

We provide Cognitive and other assessments at the Hopscotch & Harmony Psychology clinics in Werribee and Geelong. Learn More

It can be confusing and concerning when a child who seems highly intelligent is also displaying disruptive or challenging behaviour at home or school. Parents and educators may wonder why a bright child is struggling with focus, following instructions, or managing their emotions. In these situations, a psychoeducational assessment can provide valuable insights into what’s going on beneath the surface and help guide effective support strategies.

Understanding Cognitive and Learning Profiles
A psychoeducational assessment evaluates both a child’s cognitive abilities and their academic skills, helping to uncover strengths as well as areas where they may need additional support. Some children have strong verbal reasoning but struggle with processing speed or working memory. Others may excel in problem-solving but find reading, writing, or maths particularly challenging. When these differences go unnoticed, children may experience frustration, disengagement, or behavioural difficulties.

Uncovering Hidden Learning Challenges
Even children who appear bright can have underlying learning difficulties that impact their ability to succeed in a structured environment. A psychoeducational assessment can highlight whether a child is experiencing challenges such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, or dyscalculia. These are referred to as Specific Learning Disorders (SLD), but it is important to note that an SLD diagnosis requires at least six months of targeted, evidence-based intervention before it can be formally diagnosed. While a psychoeducational assessment can identify areas of difficulty and provide recommendations for intervention, it does not automatically result in an SLD diagnosis. Understanding this distinction helps ensure families seek the appropriate support needed for their child’s learning journey.

Identifying Attention and Executive Functioning Difficulties
Many children who struggle with behaviour, focus, or organisation have underlying attention-related challenges. A psychoeducational assessment often includes screening for attention and executive functioning difficulties, including potential indicators of ADHD. Children with ADHD may have strong cognitive abilities but struggle to sustain attention, regulate impulses, or transition between tasks. Recognising these patterns early can help parents and educators implement strategies such as structured routines, clear instructions, and movement breaks to better support the child’s needs.

Identifying Asynchronous Development
Some children develop advanced abilities in certain areas while lagging in others. This is known as asynchronous development, where a child’s intellectual abilities outpace their emotional, social, or academic skills. A psychoeducational assessment can provide a clearer picture of whether this might be contributing to their difficulties. For example, a child with advanced reasoning skills may struggle with impulse control, emotional regulation, or processing written instructions, leading to frustration and disruptive behaviour.

Supporting Emotional and Behavioural Regulation
When a child’s behaviour seems at odds with their intellectual abilities, it’s often a sign that they need support in managing emotions, transitions, or executive functioning skills. A psychoeducational assessment can help identify whether they would benefit from structured strategies to improve self-regulation, flexible thinking, and frustration tolerance. Understanding how they process information and approach learning tasks can lead to more targeted interventions that reduce stress and improve their overall well-being.

Guiding Tailored Support and Interventions
Once a child’s cognitive and academic profile is better understood, parents and educators can implement meaningful support strategies. Children who score below the expected range in certain areas may require additional learning support, structured teaching methods, or targeted interventions to help them build skills and confidence. This could include explicit instruction in literacy or numeracy, extra time for tasks, or hands-on learning approaches.

Children who demonstrate above-average cognitive abilities may need a different type of support. They can become disengaged or frustrated if their learning environment does not provide enough challenge. Strategies such as enrichment activities, differentiated instruction, and opportunities for deeper learning can help ensure they remain engaged and motivated. Some children with high intellectual ability but lower emotional regulation skills may also require support in managing frustration, perfectionism, or social interactions.

When to Consider a Psychoeducational Assessment
If a child is bright but struggling with learning, attention, or behaviour, a psychoeducational assessment can provide a clearer picture of their strengths and challenges. It can help determine whether academic difficulties, executive functioning challenges, or emotional regulation struggles are impacting their experience at school and home.

If you’re considering whether a psychoeducational assessment could benefit your child, our  experienced Hopscotch & Harmony team at Werribee and Geelong can help guide you through the process and provide tailored recommendations to support their success.

In a funding based educational system, it can be challenging for teachers to adequately support students who they have identified as having significant educational needs, however were not eligible for funding under their education system.

Without dedicated funding and limited resources to support the particular student, teachers often report feeling somewhat helpless. In these cases, teachers tend to feel that the demands of the curriculum are forever exceeding the level of the student’s abilities and that the child is not receiving a satisfactory amount of support in accordance with their educational needs.

In addition, the students themselves begin to feel discouraged at school, as their academic successes are inconsistent and subpar compared to their peers. This can lead to feelings of stress, poor self-efficacy and poor self-esteem.

While acknowledging that each student and their circumstances are unique, there are some simple steps that school staff alongside parents can take to facilitate discussion about the student’s needs and begin planning for appropriate interventions within the resources available.

1: Be self-forgiving. In most cases, it is a reality that the level of adjustments required to extensively support this child may be beyond what you as one person (with 20+ students to simultaneously support) can achieve in a classroom setting. Be prepared to accept that your absolute best efforts as a teacher may only account for a portion of the adjustments that the child requires.

2: Assessment. The first step to providing individualised support to a student with educational needs is to understand what their unique learning needs are.

The type of assessments that will be completed/sought will depend on the presenting concerns (medical, language, cognitive, sensory etc.). For example, children who experience difficulties with comprehension/with their expressive vocabulary may benefit from a language assessment.

It is more than likely that if a child has been identified as having significant educational needs that standardised assessment would have already been completed to identify the specific strengths and targets for intervention of the child.

Usually children with identified difficulties in school systems are referred for a cognitive (or psychoeducational)/language assessment (depending on the presenting concerns) which is usually completed by the Psychologists/Speech Pathologists in the Student Support Services team.

This service is of no cost to the family/school, however waiting periods may vary. Once school staff and parents are aware of the child’s level of functioning in the relevant areas, individualised support planning can commence.
 
3: Plan. A collaborative support system (containing teachers, parents and external service providers if any) for these children is essential in supporting the student’s unique needs. It is important that this support system discuss each area of development and who/what will be responsible for this aspect of intervention.

For example, if it was identified that the child has complex sensory needs, then a classroom sensory diet can be developed in conjunction with an external Occupational Therapist and implemented by the classroom teacher daily. In addition, a Psychologist may suggest appropriate social-emotional strategies that can be implemented in a classroom setting.

To facilitate discussion about the unique needs of your student, I have summarised just a couple of general examples of recommendations that may be suggested in a planning meeting. However, it is important that the support team maintain their unique goals to one or two important objectives at a time and do not overwhelm the student with too many interventions at any one time. 

Communication

• It is recommended that the student’s teaching team be very realistic as to what the child is expected to comprehend and what level of work they can achieve. Students may take twice the amount of time to grasp certain concepts and there may be some things that they will not be able to learn. At this point alternative curriculums may be considered.
• It is recommended that teacher’s aim to reduce the overall amount of visual information to be stored in visual and verbal memory across all areas of the classroom to ensure that the student’s limited short-term memory does not become overloaded. For example, cut down the amount of pictures on worksheets for them, amount of text to read or highlight the important parts of the text for them to quickly locate.
• It should be the aim of the teacher to allow the student to meaningfully encode and retain information which can be achieved in a number of ways:
  > sitting the student away from distractions to minimise competing sensory information
  > weaving their interests into the curriculum to increase engagement and meaningful understanding of the information.
  > using concrete and real life examples from the student’s own life and relating it to the concepts being discussed.
  > using a multi-sensory approach to learning rather than simply verbal discussion
• It is recommended that the student be provided with repetition of concepts and examples with every discussion.
• These students can create a ‘self-help guide’ that’s meaningful to them which can outline how certain tasks are tackled and they can refer to this when they are expected to complete something similar in the future. Eg: Youtube is popular with children these days, so the child could film a self-help video with their teacher on their iPad that they believe is a ‘Youtube tutorial’ that they can refer to later.
• Students should be provided with more time to complete work or complete even simple class transitions. During class discussions, is recommended that he/she be allowed to take photos of the board with his iPad to alleviate pressure to rapidly take notes OR record sessions so that they can listen to sessions, pause, rewind and review sessions. Transitions can be visually mapped or pre-discussed before the class begins.
• If additional time cannot be provided, it is recommended that the quality of work be the sole focus of the teacher rather than quantity.  
• The student may benefit from being provided with practical alternatives to abstract tasks.
• It is important that the student’s parents provide the student with opportunities to practice and work on their area of development at home (for example, placing word cards around the house or implementing a ‘word of the week’ for students with limited vocabulary).

Sensory

• It is usually recommended that the student’s teacher collaborate with an Occupational Therapist to assess the student’s motor and sensory needs. Should the child exhibit sensory seeking or avoidant behaviour that inhibits their ability to participate in the classroom, it is recommended that a sensory diet be developed as well as remedial writing strategies if required. 

Social-Emotional / Behavioural

• Creating boundaries that are clear, predictable and implemented consistently.
• Blending difficult academic tasks with rewarding activities that the child has selected.
• Discussing the child’s behaviour with a collaborative strengths based approach or if the child is triggered by “getting into trouble” a role play or discussion around the behaviour with the entire class may be helpful.
• Individualised learning plans may seek to contain goals around the theme of self-esteem and self-efficacy if they are exhibiting poor self-efficacy and avoidant/anxious behaviours towards academic tasks.
• It is recommended that the student be provided with a safe place to co-regulate with a staff member of choice.
• When deemed developmentally appropriate, it is recommended that the student engage with a Psychologist in an individual or group therapy setting to target their emotional and behavioural difficulties.
• Enrolling the student into an extra-curricular activity that they enjoy/are good at (such as soccer) would greatly benefit the child, as it maintains a sense of mastery and sense of self-efficacy. 

Educational

• External tutoring can assist students in grasping the foundational skills that they may have missed. Tutoring can allow the student to attain particular skills in an area of academic difficulty at his/her own pace in a 1:1 supported environment. This is particularly recommended for children who are suspected to have a Specific Learning Disorder.
• If possible and available to the school, the student can spend time with a Learning Support Officer to receive support for particularly challenging school tasks. 

4: Review and Revise
Pay attention to how the student is responding to the planned interventions and seek to implement these consistently for a minimum of four weeks. Review the student’s progress with the support team and make revisions to the approach/interventions as required. It is also important that progress is reflected on and the interventions evaluated by the child themselves. Overall, it is vital that the support team work hard to ensure that the student feels supported and successful in order for them to thrive from appropriate intervention.