SEPTEMBER 2008 Back to school. Officials at P.S. 183, many of whom had never heard of a child’s having a stroke, provided Jared with the extra services he would need  occupational therapy three times a week, speech therapy twice a week. To keep him from the rambunctious cafeteria setting, he had lunch in the “peanut room,” where the children with food allergies ate, and he stayed behind as they went outside for recess.

At times he was frustrated. He missed playing sports and having regular play dates. “No one else in my class has a stroke,” he said more than once. Still, his math and reading comprehension were quickly improving. His brain, it appeared, really was rewiring.

FEBRUARY 2009 After the new year, Dr. Ichord gave Jared a green light to do some additional noncontact activities, like bicycle riding and swimming. She said some weakness on his left side remained. But she told Jared that by the one-year mark, if all went well, he would be back with his friends playing baseball and basketball, as long as he avoided contact.

Jared’s medical team was joined by an expert in pediatric neuropsychology, Dr. David Salsberg of the Rusk Institute at New York University, who followed him through the 2008-9 school year. Dr. Salsberg said tests showed that Jared was performing at or above grade level in many areas but that in others, like following multistep directions, his brain needed more time, more help.

“Strokes, like most acquired brain injuries, often are ‘invisible’ injuries,” Dr. Salsberg said. “It’s not like going back to school with a cast on. The deficits are not always so evident, but are often more devastating.” Some abilities would return within months, he said; others could take much longer.

JULY 2009 Dr. Ichord told us that since a full year had passed, the chance of recurrence in an unexplained case like Jared’s was very low. And she told us she was truly impressed with his recovery to date.

“Remarkably,” she said, “Jared found within himself the will and belief to get better, even though he had the insight and an awareness of what went wrong well beyond his years.”