Easy Mental Processing Speed Activities

Mental processing speed is how long it takes a person to do a mental task. It is how fast a person can understand the information they receive and react. The information can be visual, such as written words, letters, and numbers, auditory, or movement.

The better your mental processing speed the easier you can think and learn so it is an important skill to help improve in students. Here are some ideas that you can use in your classroom today.

1. Scrambled Words & Sentences

   Give students scrambled words or sentences and have students solve these as fast as they can. You can use this with sight words and vocabulary words. You can also take facts and scramble the sentence up.

2. Sorts

   Sorts are a great way to improve mental processing. You could do word sorts, picture sorts, etc An easy sort activity that you can use as a warm up activity is giving your student a deck of cards and have them sort it by numbers, suit, or color.

3. Audio

   Listen to an audio book or presentation. Let it play for 5 seconds. Stop it, repeat every word that was spoken. Then, let it play for 10 more seconds and repeat the words that were spoken. Add 5 second increments at a time!

4. Alphabet

   Say the alphabet starting from a different letter each time. When you get to Z, call out another letter and have the student start the alphabet again. Do the same with the months of the year and days of the week.

5. Backwards

   Say the alphabet backwards, months of the week and days. For even more of a challenge, give the students a sentence and have them recite it backwards.

6. Before and After

   Again you can do this with the alphabet, months, days. Choose a letter and the student will quickly say the letter that comes before and after it.

7. Timed Activity

   Create a timed obstacle course and have students complete the activity. They should try to beat their time each time.

8. Watch Videos on Fast Speed

   When you watch a video, choose a faster speed to listen to it. Mark the highest speed you can listen to the video.

9. Tongue Twisters

   Repeat tongue twisters as fast as you can. This also helps with elocution!

10. Speed Drills & Coding Drills

    Student must go through a group of symbols and search for the target symbol. Symbol Search also involves processing speed, short-term visual memory, visual-motor coordination, cognitive flexibility, visual discrimination, and concentration.  Using the coding drills, student marks rows of symbols according to a key as quickly as possible. This activity also requires fine motor output. The same exercise will be completed every day. The goal is to beat the best time.

Students can work on these activities alone, with a friend or small group. They are a lot of fun and many people enjoy working skills that will help their processing speed. If you are looking for ways to help working, visual and auditory memory please check out this blog post – freebie included.