Illness and education

Dressed in snap-front pajamas and socks, Cole Vinson sits in a child-sized chair at a wooden table in a brightly painted room sounding out consonants.

"Hound dog. Hound dog. H-h-h."

"Sizzling sausage. Sizzling sausage. S-s-s."

"Ticking timer. Ticking timer. T-t-t."

Pulling yellow plastic figures from a Ziploc bag held by teacher Ellen Holford, Cole, 6, matches the toys with cards for the sounds he hears when pronouncing each word.

The lesson is similar to others over the past six weeks. Cole spends an hour each afternoon at the hospital learning his letters and sounds.

Cole has Guillain-Barre syndrome, a disorder rarely found in children his age. GBS is a disease that affects the peripheral nervous system and causes the arms and legs to stop working. Some patients become paralyzed or have a loss of sensation and reflexes in their limbs. Others experience pain.

Cole had all those symptoms, but for weeks no one could determine what was wrong. He would wake up in the middle of the night with pain in his legs, and doctors first thought it was just "growing pains." But it worsened, and his coordination began to decline. He would fall down while walking in the school hallway.

Holford noticed the problems at school and talked to his mother, Stephanie Vinson. Both women went together to Cole's next doctor's appointment, and the physician made a referral to a neurologist.

"It's scary for a parent," Stephanie Vinson said. "Most people are completely paralyzed until they get over it."

Cole has been getting immunoglobin therapy and has shown marked improvements. When he first came to the hospital, he couldn't walk or climb into bed. Now he moves with just a little help.

Holford, who teaches kindergarten at the Kelly School District in Benton, Mo., also is the homebound teacher assigned to work with Cole during his illness.

She tries to spend an hour each day with him, going over letters and sounds and practicing his writing -- activities children do in a regular classroom setting. That hour of instruction counts as attendance so Cole won't fall behind in his schoolwork or be retained at the end of the year.

Students like Cole, with serious illnesses or who undergo cancer treatments, suffer injuries in vehicle accidents or need surgeries, are offered homebound instruction. The exact number of homebound students varies within each area district.

"We always try to be as helpful as we can when it's a difficult time for families," said Cindy Rhodes, director of special services at Scott City schools.

Rhodes said most students who use homebound instruction are high-school age, though there have been instances when elementary students needed it. "It's not an ideal situation because they might miss something in class that might be helpful," she said. "But it does help with attendance and keeping up their grades."

Those are two of the reasons Holford volunteered to work with Cole in a homebound setting. "When you're 5 or 6, this is how you learn, by using your hands and visualizing," she said.

By being out of school for such a long time, "he could have missed a lot" because the class learns two new letters or sounds each week, she said.

A half-hour passes and Cole moves from sorting plastic toys to writing capital and lowercase U's in a workbook. He sounds out the short u, as in tugboat. Holford guides his hand as he begins to write the letters.

Because of the Guillain-Barre syndrome, the right side of his body is still shaky and unsteady when he writes or walks.

"You can see it when he holds the pencil," Stephanie Vinson said.

But Cole continues to grip the pencil and write. He drops it a few times and Holford reaches for it on the floor.

Holford leans across the table to check his work, asking him to write five "good U's." Cole picks out his best one and Holford draws a star beside that one.

"Five more minutes and you can play with the Play-doh," Holford says as he continues writing. She pulls a page of stickers out of her rolling suitcase where she keeps her teaching supplies. Cole finishes his work and takes a long time choosing what he wants until he's reminded of the Play-doh.

Holford opens the package and Cole quickly goes to work making two balls with the white dough.

Holford asks him to make an A-B pattern with 10 balls, and he sets out making a tiny purple ball of dough and then a white one, repeating the step over and over.

"I thought this would be good for his hands," Holford said.

Stephanie Vinson said her son has been doing similar activities during therapy sessions each day.

Cole will likely spend another week in the hospital before heading home. But he will have at least a year's worth of occupational and physical therapies at home.

"We have to build back the muscles in his hands and legs," Stephanie Vinson said.

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126