We have a 9 yo foster son who has been with us for the better part of 4 months now. He is the youngest of a sibling group of 3 that we have placed with us. He was diagnosed in June 2004 with orbital cancer - not actually in the eye itself, but in the muscles surrounding the eye. He had 12 months of chemo and 6 months of radiation therapy. He has been in remission since June 2005.
He is currently placed in the third grade at school, but is functioning (according to his IEP testing) at a Kindergarten level. His math skills are at an early 1st grade level. In reading skills he is just now starting to master letter recognition and letter sounds. He is starting to sound out 2 and 3 letter words. Although he is 9 years old (will be 10 in May) I would easily say that he does function (in all areas) more on the level of a 5 or 6 year old.
The oncologist says that nothing from his cancer and/or treatment should be affecting his learning abilities. Since the cancer only happened while he was in 2nd grade, and his learning levels are significantly below that, I would tend to agree with her.
My question after spending several months with him now is whether these problems stem from a true “learning disability” or if he is just so severely behind from neglect and lack of parental involvement when he was younger. There are so many simple concepts that I think a 9 year old should understand, but he does not. Things like the days of the week - - he may ask you 10 times a day - “what day is it?”, “do we have school today?”. The other day we were coming home from church and he asked what day it was… I try to help him “reason” out the answer by asking him where we just were, what we did, etc… and he will eventually figure out which day of the week it is.
Other things I’m just not sure if he has never learned, or if he really doesn’t understand. I laid out clothes yesterday - jeans, t-shirt, and sweater - for him to get dressed for church. He came out with his jeans on, sweater on, and t-shirt over top of the sweater!
He has an IEP in place at school and gets about 2 hours of “in class” help per day with a resource teacher. I try to work with him at home about an hour (or more) a day if he can take it. I am using a variety of methods - flash cards, computer learning games, hooked on phonics, etc.. - to keep it interesting for him.
I guess what I’m really wondering is: what is he capable of learning? Are my expectations realistic to think that if we work hard he can eventually get caught up to being close to where he should be in a few years time? What type of testing should I consider asking to have done for him, or should I just keep working as we have been doing and see what happens?
I know many of you out there have been through these things, so I am just looking for any feedback or advice you can give me.
MomInAL
Re: Is Testing Needed? Your Advice
I totally agree with the optimistic approach….you just don’t know how little he was exposed to prior to the past four months. I’ve had direct experience with two children from neglected backgrounds who have made incredible gains.
One entered the first school I taught at having just been placed in foster care after horrendous neglect and abuse. At that time, her IQ was measured to be in the 60s, and she acted quite a bit like the feral children you read about. At her first re-eval, 3 years later, her IQ was in the low 90s, and she was functioning in a regular-ed classroom with 2 hours of pull-out each day. We reevaled her one more time before she left us for middle school. IQ somewhere between 110 & 120. Environment, in this case, had an amazing effect on the child.
The second child is an 8 year-old I’m currently tutoring. She was adopted from South America in February at the age of 8. Although the parents were told she had completed 1st grade, this child could not name any numbers or letters in Spanish, let alone English. Although we had a slow start….it’s hard to use a strong phonics approach when the child lacks the basic vocabulary for labeling nouns…she is currently reading at an end-of-first-grade level, and is getting really excited about decoding new words.
As a start, I’d suggest you pick up a copy of Reading Reflex. It’s relatively inexpensive and available at most large bookstores. It’s written for parents and will give you a good background on the underlying skills necessary to teach reading, even if you don’t wind up following their approach completely. Victoria’s notes are also excellent, and she and many others will provide you with support if you keep us posted.
Karyn
Re: Is Testing Needed? Your Advice
This is just a thought - if you know what he needs work with, do that now instead of throwing him through some tests which will not exactly show him in a good light, after both neglect and chemical assaults on body and mind.
If the testing would get you good insights into what to work on, then go for it. However, this is a different situation than a child coming to you who’s having difficulty and you just don’t know why. Some basic achievement tests could be a good idea, especially to use as a base line ‘cause I expect he’ll make progress with support, and somebody’s giving him that now :-)
Re: Is Testing Needed? Your Advice
I agree with the others. He could be very delayed because of abuse or neglect, or he could be educably mentally disabled. You just teach him at his pace regardless. You must repeat the skills until he masters them. I have heard many reading tutors say that they have taught kids with 60 IQ’s (and occasionally lower) how to read. It is a matter of the amount of repetition that is required, assuming you are using a solid approach, and I use the same kinds of methods that the others have suggested to you.
Janis
Is testing needed?
While neglect and poor environment during crucial developmental stages will most certainly effect the types of information a child has and developed, I would not automatically assume that you should take a wait and see attitude. You are certainly on top of things, and that’s great. My thought is that assessments of attention and concentration would be a first place to start. How long can he stay on task? Is he able to divide his attention or is that too much? Obviously problems with attention and concentration may underly any problems with memory. You do want to know how efficient is his memory. is information being registered? if it is registered can he access that information? does he respond well to cues? etc. Certainly take advantage of re-evaluations offerred at his school, and by no means should you accept a waiver of any evaluations at this time.
the chemo can affect his learning
I have seen kids who have had chemo and it is really hard on their bodies and brain. No matter what the oncologist says…it can still have an impact on his learning. I would ask for a speech and language assessment and chances are he will qualify due to the delays you are speaking…those are speech and language related.
I don’t have time to write all of my thoughts now, so just some ideas.
Since neglect and lost time are definitely possibilities, why not take an optimistic approach? Assume he can learn and just missed out and so teach him. If he still doesn’t learn after every possible effort to teach over a good long period of time (a year or two), then you can start to thik disability. But try for the best possible outcome first.
Hooked on Phonics is too limited, not enough detail for many kids. I will happily send you my how to tutor outlines/book in progress. These include simple low-cost approaches that just take time and hard work. You are apparently ready and willing to put in time and work so I know you can make it. Email me a request at [email protected]
Your idea of talking and teaching him to think back and work thigs out is *excellent*. It will take time and work again, but that is the way to go. Remember this is a long-term project — you are making up for nine years of non-learning and that won’t happen in a few months — so keep up the good fight.
All the best to you. Post here or email me as above for any specific advice.