PANS - Cognitive Regression & Reading

[eacampbell67]

my 14 yr old currently taking abx to begin recovery from PANS, we are just in week 3.  believe she was exposed in March 2017 - we notice axniety, then buy July morphed in light and sound sensitivity,  memory issues and finally cognitive regression and migraines.We've had MRI, EGG, etc all negative.

Most concerning thing is seems like she has "forgot" how to read??    Anyone had similar experience?   Will she remember how to read once she gets better or will she have to re-learn

[MomWithOCDSon]

Yes!  Though my DS was younger than your DD when this particular symptomology struck him.  In second grade, he was reading at a 5th grade level before our winter break.  Just prior to winter break, he was exposed to strep, and during that two weeks off school, we saw increased anxiety, increased OCD behaviors, etc.  He went back to school in January, per usual, but by February we'd been called in to talk to his teacher who had been brought to tears by the fact that he seemed to have "forgotten" everything he'd learned in the first few months of the year, including reading.  He now couldn't manage reading AT grade level!

As he recovered, yes, his reading ability returned . . . slowly.  However, because he was younger at pretty much at the beginning of his reading learning, I found some help in a book titled "Right-Brained Children in a Left-Brained World" by Jeffrey Freed and Laurie Parsons.  Because some of my DS's symptomology was an increased "right-brainedness" -- distraction (ADD-like), ASD-type processing, etc., their techniques for using visual learning ("sight words") and memory in reading, rather than phonics and more traditional methods, really helped.

In subsequent exacerbations, this reading prohibition would sometimes return, though mostly it was less his forgetting how and more the impact of OCD (feeling as though he had to read and reread and reread because he "missed" something) and distractability (losing his place, losing the plot line, etc.).  We met that with one of us reading his material to him initially, and then as he healed we'd trade off (I'd read a chapter aloud and then stay with him while he read a chapter aloud), and finally just be his audience while he read out loud his material in its entirety, until he was well enough to read entirely on his own again.  I think using two senses in the reading process (seeing and hearing) by reading out loud helps a little, too.

[eacampbell67]

MomwithOCDSon - thanks so much for the reply - my wife and I where worried that he ability to read was totally lost for good.

We  have started reading to her and as she recovers we will try what seemed to have worked for you.  She's currently can't read but wants to - we just started treatment ( abx of zithromax 250mg & minocycline 100 mg) along with TBB plus (herbal viral infection fighter) , and OPC (anti-inflamtory) we've seen some real changes over the last 3 weeks - but as you know we are anxious to get her better, the NP we are working with told us it would be 6 weeks min to see some noticeable results, so we thinking it will take a least 3 months.