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I posted on here recently about how tired my daughter gets, but also, when she is tired her concentration is also really bad and it is affecting her school work a lot.

The thing is, both her teacher and I can't quite decide whether the problems with her school work are all due to being tired or whether they is some sort of other problem as well. Our haematologist says that fatigue is not a symptom of ITP so there is no point me asking him this question. Does anyone else have any problems like this? Do you think it seems related?

I think it's likely to be related to the tiredness. When Dougie gets really fatigued he says there is no point in going to school ( he does though!) because he just can't think. He says that everything which should be easy is a struggle on those days, including listening. I have never really experienced that kind of fatigue, but he is definitely sometimes tired in a way that my other kids have never been. His doctor recognises tiredness as being part of ITP though -you need to get yours up to date because there is literature proving the link out there!

Thank you for your reply Alison. That's really helpful. Last year there seemed to be patches where she wasn't so tired but this year she has been really tired continuously and her reading seems to be getting worse all the time. We have an appointment on Wednesday so I will memtion it and see what they say.

It must be so difficult with a small child because they don't always have the words to describe what they feel. And kids have short memories - I sometimes think that Dougie can't remember what normal feels like. But when he had IVIG a few years back, he actually remarked that he wasn't feeling tired for once, so I am pretty convinced that there is a link. Good luck with the dr .

I am not a child with itp, but maybe I can be of help to you. I am a special education teacher with ITP myself. Fatigue is related to ITP. Itp specialists recognize this, but not all hematologists do. I can tell you that when my counts are low all I want to do is sleep. Concentrating is challenging because you just feel so groggy and achy ( basically like you are coming down with the flu) all of the time. I can def se how it would be hard to focus in school.

However, since I am also a special education teacher, can I ask has she ever had trouble focusing in the past? Are there specific areas where she is struggling more than others? How are her vision and hearing ( I know that question seems crazy, but I have seen kids being referred to special education because they could not see the board and had complete hearing loss in one ear.

Thank you gery much for your rely Vdeutsch.

I can't really say how she was before having ITP as she is nearly 7 now and was diagnosed at he age of 3 but probably had it since the age of 1. I have no reason to question her vision and hearing.

In the past we seemed to get short periods when she was fine, but we haven't had that for a very long time now. The main problem is with reading. She is on a level of books which I know is correct ( or was at one point) but concentration and trying to get her to read is really hard. She will guess most words, sound out what is not there and swap letters arround in words. Common words that she should recognise without sounding out she dosn't. However, as I said, there were odd times in the past when she could read her book perfectly. She also has problems with number reversals ie writng 81for eighteen and writting single digits the wrong way round. I spent time with her last night on numbers and as long as she concentrated she mastered it, but it took her an extremly long time to remember what 13 says. When she was 5 I remember spending 10 mins twice a day for a week trying to get her to recognise numbers up to 12 and at the end of the week there were some she still couldn't do.

Switching numbers and letters dyslexia? Many learning issues are not noticed till about the age of 7. I would take the time to have hearing and eyes tested and look into learning disorders.

My kids do not have ITP that said My son was diagnosed with ADHD and an auditory processing disorder. I was told he would never make it to high school. He graduated with not only a high school diploma but a high skills major diploma as well. My Daughter with ADHD and later bipolar she graduated University with Bachelors of Arts with Honours in English and a minor in Celtic studies she did it in 3 years and not in 4.


Checking for hearing and eye site issues should be standard before school. Checking into learning issues is important because had I not my son may never of graduated.

Winnifred, I was also wondering about dyslexia, however today am I sure it is just caused by ITP.

The reason I say this is because her count has increased over the last few days (it is now 31) and the last couple of days her work has been amazing. She has been reading a book for a while and she had been really struggling with literally every word. Today and yesterday at home and school she whizzed through it and read it perfectly. I asked her why there was such a big change in her reading and she said she doesn't feel as tired at the moment.

Her concentration myst be affected by her platelet count!!