Kindergarten - not yet "officially" diagnosed...

You can make a good start by reading articles from the LD In Depth page on this site.
Hoping things go well with you.

Chemo does seem to be a risk factor for LD. I found this in a discussion of “causes” of LD.

“In addition, there is growing evidence that learning problems may
develop in children with cancer who had been treated with chemotherapy or radiation at an early age. This seems particularly true of children with
brain tumors who received radiation to the skull.”

In terms of diagnosis, you basically have two choices: wait for the school or pursue diagnosis privately. In waiting for the school, make sure that you have requested evaluation in writing. There is some legal limit for how long you can wait, but I am not sure what it is. You must have requested in writing for these legal limits to “count”, however.

Private evaluations are likely to be more comprehensive and perhaps interpreted more accurately (our school one was way off on some things in terms of interpretation). But you have to pay for it. You do get to control the results—don’t have to share anything you don’t want to share.

I don’t know whether cancer treatment causes particular types of LD but it seems possible to me that you are dealing with an atypical situation. Because of that, I would pursue private testing in your situation, if at all possible.

Beth

I agree with the advice above…but I wanted to chime in and say that, in my opinion, one should NEVER ‘wait’ or ‘trust’ for the school to do what we want — they may do something, but it may NOT be the right thing for your son. They may care, be wonderfully sympathetic, blah blah blah…but in the end, it is YOUR child — it is THEIR job. Even the best and brightest go home at night and it doesn’t effect THEIR LIFE. Just their job…will Ms. Grade 2 care if you have a 6th grade nightmare in your future, provided your little darling and her class go smoothly and happily through Grade 2? I think not…

I’m not trying to slam them per se — but they are dealing in times where money counts for all, not kids. The tendency in schools is to think their method is best, and if their method doesn’t work — well, there must be something ‘wrong’ with the child! Especially if they see your child’s problems as ‘damage’ (ie resulting from chemo) the tendency may be to just relax and do nothing — help your child ‘cope’ but little else. This view is NOT valid, IMO — why give up when so many many people have achieved far more than was ever predicted for them? Even in cases of TBI, people achieve amazing things — but only when they believe they CAN progress…I’m one of those ‘Yeah, but then there’s Helen Keller’ types…!

You want learning to happen — not on any pre-determined, pressurized schedule, but you want your child to progress steadily, to work, learn, and see himself as a successful learner.

Your best bet is to be informed about your child’s difficulties, and learn what methods or strategies work to help him. I worked with my child quite a bit, but also had tutors in the early years. You don’t have to work one-on-one with your child, but you will need to understand what the teachers/tutors are doing to make effective choices. I agree with Beth about private testing — due to the involvement of chemo/radiation, it is best to have a full neuro workup, IMO, not just educational psych testing. This will give you a ‘benchmark’ to start researching and comparing your child with other children, in order to learn how he learns.

Finding the right methods early on could make things MUCH easier for your son — so read, read, read, and talk to other parents as much as possible. Especially parents of similar kids! But also parents of kids with similar symptoms — don’t look only to ‘kids with history of chemo/radiation combined with subsequent learning difficulties’, though. If your kid struggles to read — talk to parents whose kids have similar symptoms, make similar errors, respond similarly. Maybe they have something they can recommend! I am all in favour of Victoria’s methods — applied with much encouragement and belief that the child CAN achieve just one more level, on an open-ended schedule that celebrates accomplishment but is not tied to pre-determined ‘children should do xy by age…’ stuff — this will work for any child!

You and your child are going to live with the results of any decisions made on his behalf — I don’t know about you, but I decided early on that I’d rather live with MY mistakes than the school’s! You need to see yourself as the ‘Captain’ of your child’s “Learning Ship’, and one day (gradually, over the years, we hope!) he will take over as a fully independent learner and his own ‘Captain’ as a successful adult. The school is only one of the tools in your tool box…find how they ‘work’ and how best to utilize what they offer.

This is not an easy road, but if you and your child have survived childhood cancer, it will not likely pose any terrible obstacles — I hope you will hang out here and let us know how you get on!

Elizabeth is right on with the fact that schools can be quick to dismiss a child who has a reason for not learning. My son, early on, tested as having an 84 IQ. This is on the low end of “normal” and was their excuse for why he did not learn to read in first grade (I suggested he needed more explict teaching—not, according to them). Not all schools are like this—in his previous district (we had moved), it was understood that these scores did not reflect his ability. They saw more of the whole child and the inconsistencies of IQ testing with other things. It turned out that auditory processing issues impacted his ability to follow directions (the fact that he couldn’t follow directions was noted initially but implications ignored by second school). After some therapy he was retested and scored considerably higher (99-which is about as average as you can get).

My son has come as far as he has because, like Elizabeth, I decided early on that the schools were not out to serve his interests but theirs. I decided to take charge of his learning. This, has at times, meant utilizing school resources. More often it has meant me doing something—whether be doing direct teaching or finding and following up on therapy/tutoring. It has been a very long road but, as I said, he is now doing well. We still haven’t reached the limit of what I think he can achieve through therapy, although we may be there soon.

I think often of the old prayer: Lord, help me to change the things that can be changed, accept those that can not, and have the wisdom to know the difference. You just don’t want the school to assume he has more limitations than necessary because of his medical history.

Beth

Back up Elizabeth and Beth 100% on this.

Elizabeth gave an ad for my generic reading approach. In the most recent version of the outlines I have described in detail a method of teaching the alphabet that is very effective, and a generic approach to learning numbers and basic facts. *Just* the alphabet and number recognition would be the place to start — save the reading words and sentences and books, and the addition facts, for a bit later. Definitely open-ended and on the *child’s* learning schedule, not a calendar. If you are interested in these outlines, just email me a request at [email protected] I try to get a batch sent out every few weeks.