Short term memory loss in 6 year old?

[jkkingsx]

Hello,
My wife and I are currently deployed in Iraq, and our two children are in the care of my mother in Germany. This year our daughter is 6 years old, and has just moved from a German kindergarten, to 1st Grade in the Department of Defense School System. They started her in American kindergarten, but after an evaluation they moved her up to 1st Grade where she is now. She is currently having trouble spelling and reading. This affects the rest of her schoolwork because most work is given with written instructions. If she is told to read a story, she will have a classmate read it to her, she then memorizes the story, and pretends to read it back at home. She's not really reading, just paraphrasing. Most of the time she recites the story exactly as it was read to her, but then will add words. When asked if she was reading, she says no she was just telling the story. My mother works with her @1 hour each night to help her learn words for her spelling tests. My mother works to help her spelling by sounding out the words, slowly putting them together like: P Puh  -- in, Pin, and they will write and say the words together. After they learn 5 words, my mother gets a blank piece of paper, and they start again. P Puh---in And my daughter won't recognize the word and would say "Hat"? She says she can't remember what the word was. She also does little things like ask for Pancakes for breakfast, and while my mother is making the pancakes my daughter will ask her for cereal. When asked "Don't you remember asking me for pancakes?" My daughter says "No?"

My 4 year old son however can already spell and remember the same words my daughter is having trouble with.

My thoughts on the school work is this:The German kindergarten was not very structured for academics. They do a lot of creative activities. Learning music, arts and crafts, etc..She has only been in an academic structured environment for 3.5 weeks, and I think it is really hard for her.

My daughter successfully moved from Kentucky to Bamberg Germany and went from a day-care center to a German Kindergarten where she became fluent in understanding and speaking German in @6months at the age of 3. So I know she is capable of learning.

Do you think these things are actual short term memory loss issues, or possibly just stress related with our deployment, changing schools, trying hard to fit in with now an English speaking school, actually having assignments,etc..Or possibly her just not wanting to read and spell? Please help, we are so far away and want to make everything as easy as we can for our children while we are deployed. Thank you

[billy10001]

Hello i have a child who is nine years of age, she suddenly passes out, stops breathing, after less than a minute she awakens with sometimes convulsions, memory loss, and eats paper and other abnormal behavior,  she then thinks she is a newborn and after a few minutes she is back to normal.  we took her to see a neurologist and they could not find any diagnosis of any brain injury or abnormal indications of tumor growths,  what could be the problem?   Please send me a email.  ***@****

[lmroswell]

I'm no expert, but could the exposure to both German and English languages have an impact on her developmental abilities regarding learning the English language?  Just a thought.  By the way, we salute all you soldiers representing our country.  Our thoughts are with you and your families.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear jkkingsx,
We asked Dr. Kevin Kennedy (of our Child Behavioral Health Forum) to review your question and provide an answer. Below is his reply.
Regards,
Med Help International
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While it is possible that a short term memory deficit is present, I'd be reluctant to focus on that right now. My sense is that the fundamental difficulty is the absence (through no fault of the girl's own) of some phonics fundamentals.  Now, it used to be that learning to read  was the major educational task facing first graders.  To some extent, that is true today. However,  with so many children exposed to pre-school and kindergarten settings, many children enter first grade with knowledge of phonics. They then quickly proceed to the
process of reading. Having said that, it is by no means
true across the board. Even when children have attended pre-school and kindergarten settings, the structure of the 'curriculum' in such settings is quite variable. The gentleman mentioned that his daughter experinced a kindergarten program that was not focused on beginning reading skills: letter recognition, sound-symbol association, basic phonics, etc. Thus, she probably enters first grade with a skill deficit.

Here's what I'd suggest. It's probaby not sensible to continue the current arrangement. Compensating for inadeqaute knowledge of phonics by some tutoring at home will not bridge the gap. - she won't be able to keep up. It makes perfect sense for this girl to return to a kindergarten program, hopefully one that is taught in English. She will likely grasp the material pretty quickly. If not, it would invite evaluation re: possible learning disability (of which memory could be a component, though it's not likely).

The bi-lingual success she has achieved suggests that she does not likely have a learning disability, and has the native skills to do fine with learning how to read. She needs more instruction in the fundamentals. It's almost as if she's been thrown in the water and told to swim, without having been taught how to float, breathe, kick, etc.

The anecdote re: panackes in and of itself is not a sign for worry. Young children are pretty immediate, focused on the moment, and their requests are often very fleeting. Time will tell if there is any type of neurointegrative condition, such as a learning disability, present, but at the moment it's not a direction I'd advise pursuing.