Can a learning disability be past down genetically?

Question

My son is 5 and he is in kindergarten. He is one of the youngest in his class. He had troubles in the beginning with a lot of things but he caught up with almost everything. The problem we are having is that when he counts he skips numbers. For the longest time he even had troubles to count till ten. But he has no problems doing subtraction and additions. How can a kid be able to tell you what 5+4 is but not count till ten? Is this normal? English is my 2nd language so I am concerted that it maybe has something to do with that. Does he maybe have a learning disability? When I was a child I kind of had the same problem in elementary school. I barley got by till high school. Then I realized that I had to study differently then other kids and I was fine. I never was diagnosed with add but I know that I my thought process was always different then most people. Can a learning disability be past down genetically?

Answer 1

yes it can be passed down. You can have your son tested and you tested for learning disablilties. I recommend this. you will feel better and both benefit from the help you can get.

Answer 2

That last question can be debated forever.  The answer doesn't matter; what matters is your son's performance in school.  Since he's only in kindergarten, I would just make sure you work with him and home and encourage him to FOCUS (as much as a five year old can - haha) and perhaps SLOW DOWN when he works.  Work with him, and depend on the teachers to do it all by themselves.

Answer 3

There is a family link to learning disabilities-I don't know of any specific genetic link, but it can 'run in families'

It does not seem to be like a genetic disorder such as cystic fibrosis where there is a 25% chance of the child having the disease-it is a much lower link-like beign predisposed to diabetes...

Answer 4

yes- he may need to be pulled out and return next year.  don't consider this a failure.  he may thrive by your good decision.  talk to the teacher and pediatrician.

Answer 5

When you stop to think that 5 years is not very long, just a few months can make a large difference in developmental changes, so I would always factor this in – for your own comfort level – when you use his peers as a comparison.  But this does not mean anything, other than this is where he is at, for the moment.  You indicated that he ‘caught up’ so this is an excellent sign.  If he truly were struggling, this could not have happened.  Children vary so incredibly much (thank goodness, or our relationships would be a very boring) and please do not rely on using others too much, for dependable models.

There are excellent books out there that you can purchase, even though they no longer are in print – and they are worth their weight in gold (just do a search on line, and you will find links).  It is a series, with easy to remember titles, such as YOUR ONE-YEAR OLD – or – YOUR TWO YEAR OLD, etc. until you get up into age twelve or thirteen (I can’t remember).  They were written by the Ames Institute of Child Development where they studied children all over the globe, documenting the hallmark stages of development of human children.  And what a remarkable series of studies they were.  You will find such reassurance, I am certain.  

As for the learning disability, you answered your own question, in part.  Learning disabilities are nothing more than a difference in how a child learns something – and shows up only through discrepancies in academic achievement tests.  It is not measurable in any other way – it is only visible through tests.  So essentially, (and the way I view it) a learning disability is more a problem in how the message is being delivered, rather than the ability to understand the message once received.  Make sense?  Furthermore, LD children can still be exceptional in specific areas, such as computational math, and yet still be challenged in other areas, because of the varying differences of strengths and weaknesses between the visual, auditory, and tactile senses – plus a whole host of other factors.  Don’t worry.  Just love him, be positive and support him, and never forget --- YOU are the expert.  No matter what kinds of degrees and training you may encounter in the future -- you know him better than ANYONE else.  Draw from your own experiences, and follow your instincts.  And finally, the act of learning is such a natural thing, that you probably wouldn't be able to stop it from happening - even if you tried.  Good luck.