Educational Challenges

Their condition can change rapidly over time, that is, ‘fluctuate’, making progress at school erratic, and support needs to be responsive to this. Regular monitoring and updating of therapeutic and educational plans is necessary
When the child’s disease is active, performance can vary even within a day, making them susceptible to fatigue and difficulties with concentration. Teachers/LSAs must be made aware of this and careful timetabling of lessons may help to minimise the impact
Despite having significant language difficulties, many children with LKS retain average or above average abilities in the non-verbal domain. However, because standard classroom presentation (instruction and so on) is almost invariably verbal, this means that a special teaching approach must be devised (see below). It is vital that these good skills are recognised, and that it is not assumed that the child has general learning difficulties, simply because of the language difficulties
Other cognitive effects of LKS such as slow processing and impaired verbal memory make it even harder for LKS children to understand what is required of them. For example, children with LKS may understand language in a quiet one to one situation, but in a noisy classroom the listening environment is very complex and the child may well be unable to decipher the same auditory information. In other instances, the child may understand spoken information at a simple level, but have auditory memory problems that mean that they are quite unable to remember a sequence of verbal instructions or a story – which would cause enormous difficulty in class and also with playmates. However, the severity of this difficulty may be masked by the abilities that are preserved and by clever use of well-learned social behaviours (children usually want to cover up what they can’t do) and this may be misconstrued as ‘naughtiness’. Useful strategies for tackling memory/processing problems are described below
LKS is associated with a number of behavioural difficulties that may be very disruptive to learning and school life, for example, poor attention and concentration, social communication problems, aggressive outbursts. (A more detailed description, including suggested coping strategies, is set out in the Behaviour section).