Katy Graves

SERP 301
Case Study Child Background
September 30th, 2014

Javier is a 7-year-old student in my second grade classroom. The following information

about Javier (whose name has been changed for the purposes of this paper) was taken from the
IEP he has at Elvira Elementary. Javier has been diagnosed with a specific learning disability in
the areas of basic reading skills, reading comprehension, written expression, oral expression, and
listening comprehension. He struggles with decoding and composing sentences both when
reading and writing. On the Oral and Written Language Scales (2nd Edition) Javier received a
high average score of 114 in listening comprehension but was significantly delayed in expressive
language receiving a score of only 56. He is at a mid kinder level for both reading and writing.
His 45 day screening (originally done at Grijalva Elementary and sent to Elvira) shows concerns
in following oral directions, immature language, difficulties in expression, lack of grammar in
speech, speech quality, slowing learning, basic reading and writing skills, hyperactivity, and not
being able to retain or remember directions and concepts. Javier does show strengths in doing
calculations, logical reasoning and fluency. His teacher reports that he is eager to learn and puts
in a good effort, but when the work becomes overwhelming he has a tendency to give up.
Accomodations in the classroom that are suggested are reminders and redirection to get him to
remain focused and frequent praise to help boost self confidence. Also Ms. Higuera (Javier's
teacher) will walk through assignments slower with him, and a few others who need extra help,
while the rest of the class works independently. She also does not expect him to write as much as

the others because it takes him longer to compose sentences. Javier receives extra services in
math, reading, and writing outside of class four times a week for a total of two hundred and forty
minutes per week. He also receives speech therapy for thirty minutes a week.
The goals listed in Javier's IEP are as follows and are hoped to be reached by the end of
this year. He will read fluently fifty words a minute a first grade level. He will orally identify the
main topic and retell key details of a story sixty percent of opportunities given. He will write
informative text with a topic sentence, three facts, and a closing sentence. He will score a 4 on
first grade common core writing rubric. He will read 100 sight words 100% of the time from
Fry's First Hundred word list. He will write all 52 upper and lower case letters. He will use four
to five word sentences to describe a topic given one visual or verbal clue in 8 out of 10
opportunities given. He will orally sequence stories using transitional languages (first, next, then,
finally , etc) four out of five times.
A specific learning disability is defined as a disorder in one or more of the basic
psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, that
may manifest itself in the imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do
mathematical calculations, including conditions such as perceptual disabilities, brain injury,
minimal brain dysfunction, dyslexia, and developmental aphasia (Myers, 2014). This means
that a learning disability can manifest itself in many different ways. It looks different in every
child and is treated different ways. In Javier's case he does have difficulty understanding the
processes behind reading and writing which sometimes affect his ability to listen, think, speak,
read, and write. Javier has the skills, but it just takes him longer to make the phonemic
connections in his work. But being a person with a learning disability doesn't just mean you have
difficulty learning, it is a neurological disorder that affects the brains ability to receive, process,

store and respond to information (NCLD Editorial Team, 2014). This is why Javier's earlier
teacher recognized he had difficulty remembering directions or concepts, and may have had
some hyperactivity. He was not processing the information the same way the other students were.
Reading comprehension interventions are the best way to help students with learning disabilities
(NCLED Editorial Team, 2014). The most successful of these interventions teach multiple
strategies for decoding text. This is what we are trying to do with Javier. He will be evaluated
again at the end of the semester to see if our interventions have been working the way we hope.
The evaluations are to be seen as guidelines toward a framework of ways we can continue to
help Javier in the classroom (Chauvin). If the evaluation shows that our strategies have not been
working, we will work with Javier and his team to come up with ways to help him more. Like
mentioned before learning disabilities can be tricky because they are unique to each child, so it is
important Javier be as involved as possible in his own successes.

References

Myers, Candy. (2014). Specific Learning Disabilities.Colorado Department of Educaiton.

Retreived from http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdesped/sd-sld

NCLD Editorial Team. (2014). Reading Comprehenision Instruction for Students with LD.
National Center for Learning Disabilities. Retrieved from http://ncld.org/studentsdisabilities/ld-education-teachers/reading-comprehension-instruction-students-with-ld

Chauvin, Donna A. Connecting the Evaluation to the IEP. Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities.
Retrieved from http://www.smartkidswithld.org/guide-to-action/educationalplanning/evaluation-and-the-iep