A child who can not learn visual things?

[PhotoGal]

Does anyone have experience with a child like this? Our son, adopted from China last summer, has spina bifida and hydrocephalus. He is 5 1/2 years old now. Kids with SB often have "nonverbal learning disabilities" - showing up as issues with math and reading comprehension starting around 3rd grade or so. However, for most kids, reading is a strength in school.

 

Our son is learning English very quickly and was already speaking in phrases after just a couple weeks with us. He definitely can learn at a good rate auditorily. However, we have noticed that he has a lot of difficulty learning visual things. It took a LONG time for him to learn colors and shapes. He does still not consistently remember his shapes if we haven't reviewed for awhile. (I am talking shapes like circle and square).

 

We have been working on letters for several months in preparation for kindergarten. We have used ABC books, environmental print, DVDs, apps, ABCmouse, AAR prereading, an ABC chart, and even flashcards. It took him about a month to learn the letter A. Then, it took another month to learn B (still not solid on B...). He knew C and D, but now we are working on E and he has no idea. I can show him, talk about this letter being in his name, tell him the letter - then a few minutes later show it to him and he has no idea. He will guess "A!" "B!" "N!" or not say anything at all. I don't make a big deal of him not knowing, just say "This is letter E! E for elephant!" or something and move on.

 

The kindergarten he is enrolled in is a Mandarin immersion school. He came to us fluent in Mandarin, but has lost most of it over the last 7 months. I am sure he will pick the language up again (listening/speaking). But I am very concerned that he will not be able to learn characters. Of course, I am also concerned about learning to read in English as well, because some words you just need to know as sight words. I am hoping (HOPING!) he will learn his letters and sounds before kindergarten starts, but now I'm not even sure about that.

 

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has seen a child like this and how did they learn to read?  

[PeterPan]

I'll just bite here and say you're probably going to need to get evals and make sure you have the right words for things.  That way you're not proceeding on one assumption when it's another thing.  What you could do to hit both directions is schedule a neuropsych eval (to look for learning disabilities, etc.), and while you're on the waiting list for that (probably getting it when he's newly 6, or at least that's what we did), get his eyes checked by a developmental optometrist.  Do the annual and ask them to screen, or they can run a full developmental vision eval.  That way if it's vision, you've identified it.  If it's not vision, you're on the waiting list to get it figured out by the psych.

[laundrycrisis]

There are certain problems with visual processing/perception- that is the brain part of vision, not the eye part - that can make a person not remember or be able to recognize figures. A developmental optometrist who specifically tests for and treats visual processing issues (some of them only go as far as visual motor, so you need to ask) is the person to get help from. Our son could not start to read because his visual memory and form constancy were very poor. He was helped by very specific therapy that helped him build these skills.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Laundrycrisis2

[Heathermomster]

My eldest sibling was born with severe spina bifida and hydrocephalus.  She learned to read and write prior to her shunt malfunction which led to blindness.  What does your son's neurologist say?  A baseline brain scan could identify any specific brain injury.   Maybe speak with his primary care doctor and work out who to see first.

 

I noticed that all the materials you are using are primarily visual.  I would be tempted to add a kinesthetic element with clay, sandpaper letters, and shaving cream.  Since he seems to be highly auditory, absolutely exploit that route.  He may also need Lindamood Bells LIPs prior to any phonics instruction and SLP work.  

Edited March 17, 2016 by Heathermomster

[PeterPan]

I think if you're needing LIPS, you need that psych eval and a CTOPP to see if there's dyslexia.  When you have complex situations like that, you're going to have to look at all the explanations to make sure it isn't a blend.

[Storygirl]

DS11 has nonverbal learning disorder with SLDs in math and reading comprehension. Kids with NVLD often have good rote memory skills, so during the early school years, learning to read, learning math facts, etc., may come easily. Typically, they start to show trouble with academics in later elementary.

 

For DS, in third grade when we got his diagnosis, we were surprised by some of it, because he had always seemed good at math and reading. Now in fifth grade, his deficits are huge and obvious. He stalled at that third grade reading comprehension level, has extreme trouble with the conceptual understanding of math, and has forgotten many of those foundational math skills that seemed to come so easy before, so that he has big holes in his math knowledge. His academic abilities have followed the typical NVLD pattern (though he has other issues mixed in).

 

Perhaps your son's issues are related to NVLD, but I wanted to suggest that what you describe is not following the typical pattern seen in NVLD, so there could be something else going on. You may find out more by having a complete evaluation that includes a test such as the WISC (not sure what age this is normed to and whether it can be done for a five year old), which examines cognitive ability from several angles and can help pinpoint whether there is an issue with working memory or processing speed or visual-spatial deficits.

 

I would also think that a language screening such as the CELF (again, I don't know how young they can administer this) could be helpful, and maybe the CTOPP, which screens for phonological ability. What you are seeing could be more like dyslexia and/or working memory than NVLD, but you would need someone to help you sort it out.

 

Because he is young and English is new for him, he may just need more time. However, since you know he has medical conditions that can be comorbid with learning disabilities, I'd be inclined not to wait it out but to pursue some testing. Doing remediation EARLIER is better.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Storygirl

[ElizabethB]

Words seem to be read and known by sight once you are a good reader, but if you look at recent brain research, the brain is processing all the letters and letter teams on the side of the brain that processes sounds really fast in parallel.

 

The thread linked at the end has links to Stanislas Dehaene's articles and a video explaining some things, but you will need the level of information he has in his book, reading in the brain, he goes into detail about how letters are processed in the visual word form area and problems that can occur if that area of the brain is damaged.

 

And, I would agree, given the medical problems, get help and a good diagnosis as soon as possible, the brain is more plastic the younger you are, so the earlier you are doing things that will help, the better.

 

It could also be a problem that a covd doctor could fix, or any number of things, but a thorough understandng of how the process works will be helpful to you whatever the underlying proglem turns out to be.

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/579026-brain-research-shows-adults-read-words-by-sound-not-sight-just-really-fast/?hl=%2Bstanislas+%2Bdehaene

Edited March 17, 2016 by ElizabethB

[geodob]

PhotoGal, you wrote that he came to you fluent in Mandarin.

Though you didn't mention whether he had been learning to read and write in Mandarin?

 

Where Mandarin doesn't have an alphabet system of letters, and doesn't have a phonetic system to represent sounds.

So that their is no concept of letters representing sounds.

This has presented a major problem natural Mandarin speakers, learning to write in English and phonetic languages.

 

Though in 1958 in China, they developed a system called PinYin.  Which literally means: 'spell sound'.

Which uses symbols to represent syllables.

Also introduces Western letters and numbers.

But an important difference, is that they learn to write the syllable. Rather than the letter.

So that taking your example of: "This is letter E! E for elephant!" 

 

They would learn, el as the written symbol for the sound of el in elephant.

So that it goes from sound, to syllable, to letters.

Rather than letters, to syllable, to sound ?

 

So perhaps you could try a syllable approach, rather letters?

el, en, ex, ec, es, etc ?