After the first or second lab, one might find some students to be slower than the rest. It has repeatedly been my experience that these students do quite well, if given enough attention and if they are accommodated with convenient office hours early on in the course. It is also useful to give them a little extra time in the beginning without penalty. This extra time should be predicated on them showing that they have tried and started and are willing to work to get it done very soon.
Given the fairly basic material of CS10, CS12 and CS08, the student often does not have trouble with understanding material once it is explained in detail. For some reason or other, however, they can't pick it up as quickly as the rest. Once their questions are answered, however, they seem to be able to work on their own quite well.
I have had a few students exemplify this pattern in some way. Two students exemplify this parttern strongly. One student was in CS12. At the start of the course she would ask the most basic questions and she registered late so she was behind. However, I accommodated her and gave her time due to her late registration. Also, I spent quite a bit of time answering her questions. I thought the barrage of questions would never end. However, after the 4th or 5th lab, I stopped getting the questions and the student seemed to be on their way. In the end, she was one of the better students in the class getting a B+, and this was in the infamously hard Ruscheinsky class...a veritable badge of honor.
Another student I had more recently in cs8. She seemed to be having trouble following the directions in the book about how to proceed. It turned out that:
The next lab was similar. She seemd to have many questions, and her inability to use the computer got in the way. However, she persistently raised her hand this time whenever she had a problem. (These problems where very simple yet her complete inexperience with computers made her unable to see them.) I again made an office hour appointment in which she finished the lab at her own pace, step by step.
However, after this lab her pace sped up and she started to finish labs at the same speed as the other students. By the end of the class, she was finishing before or at the same time as others. I don't know her final grade in the class yet, but I think it is quite high.