Is LD hereditary?

[UncleDave]

Greetings... My late wife struggled with learning disabilities throughout her life. She had a form of dyslexia, and her reading and spelling were equivalent to 3th and 1st grade, respectively. Amazingly, she was able to cope in spite of it, and even took a couple of college-level courses! She was a truly amazing woman for the strength of her faith and her sheer determination to succeed despite the odds. I adminre greatly and miss her terribly.

My son has been struggling in school, mostly with math and spelling. He is currently in 3rd grade, and has fallen so far behind that he might not pass this year. He has issues with concentration and memorization. The strangest part is that he reads very well, and his comprehension level is high; however, he cannot spell to save his life. Why such a disconnect between reading and spelling? I am having him evaluated, but want to ask, if he definitely has a form of LD, is it possible that it's hereditary?

Thank You

 

[talktopaul]

Like most things, there's often a genetic predisposition that is passed on, but other factors (such as stress, education, parenting etc etc) also play a role and can determine the extent to which the disorder is expressed. My advice would be to focus on the things that you do have control over - to work to your child's strengths, and to explore strategies for mitigating his weaknesses.

 

[beaverpond]

We are also struggling with some learning disabilities in my daughter. We have been fighting the school system at doing the appropriate testing for almost 2 years before they finally started listening to me earlier this year, back in February to be exact.

After hearing the result, we went to see her neurologist to see if there was some sort of testing that he knew of that might help him out. So he is lining her up for some. I guess what gets me is that her testing in school came back so severe that they have never seen anything like it and don't know how to deal with her.

I was so frustrated that instead of being the level headed parent, I became the pushy overheated school board member who has a habit of telling people what they are going to do and when they are going to do it. I found it also frustrating that they say they did an eye test but she is only reading one letter at a time on the chalk board. I took that as a sign of vision problem and her vision was 20/75 which was an eye stigmatism. We did get her classes. The list of things that our school is not doing as far as communicating with parents is just the tip of the iceberg.