Learning Disabilities Summary

Benchmark Assignment: Learning Disabilities Summary

Jaclyn Fishler
SERP 405

Learning Disabilities Summary

Student Description
To extend my skills in assessment and instruction, I chose to analyze an individual case
student by the name of David. David is a tenth grader and he attends school in a special
education class due to his learning disabilities. While reading passages, David is able to fluently
read words aloud, but he struggles with comprehension. When David is instructed to write an
essay, he has a difficult time with expressiveness. In addition, David has trouble with
understanding basic mathematical concepts, such as addition/subtraction or money problems.
David struggles with reading, written expression, and mathematics due to his lack of staying
focused and monitoring his own thinking.
However, there are academic and communication areas that David thrives in. If the task
seems interesting to David, he will automatically be able to memorize the details behind it. I
noticed that David has a very selective memory and when he activates his memory, he is
advanced. Although David struggles with receptive language, he exceeds with expressive
language. David has a difficult time with following directions due to his lack of listening skills,
but he responds well when he actively interacts with his classmates as well as his teachers.

Learning Disabilities Summary

Abstract
For the LD Summary assignment, I will demonstrate my knowledge, integration,
and presentation of areas studied in 405 by evaluating David. I will monitor assessment data and
task analyses so that I can be informative of where the student academically stands. Throughout
this journey, I will explicitly discover all of the students strengths and weaknesses. To improve
Davids learning skills, I will analyze a counteractive learning plan. Along the way, I will do a lot
of research to learn about many strategies that I will apply to David so that he can be successful.

Reading: Word Identification

Learning Disabilities Summary

First of all, reading is a very critical part of education. One important aspect of reading is
accuracy and fluency. For accuracy, David can rapidly read words aloud without making any
mistakes. If he accidentally makes a mistake, he instantly corrects himself because he is able to
pick up on what he said incorrectly by hearing his own voice. Considering David is able to
correct his own mistakes, this shows that he has great fluency skills as he decodes words
effortlessly, with automaticity. When David reads a passage, he is able to recall many sight
words without any hesitation. I could tell that he sounded very natural in his voice when he read
these words considering he familiarized them from previous readings. David is able to decode
words by using consonant and vowel sounds which indicates that he has phonic awareness. To
analyze Davids phonics skills, I pointed to a few different words and asked David to
individually say each sound in the word to blend the entire word together to make sure that he
understood each part of the word. Initially, he was confused by my instructions so I restated it in
a different way and he eventually understood and was able to master this skill due to his
advanced phonics abilities. I also noticed that David has an excellent sense of phonemic
awareness as he is able to identify and manipulate the individual phonemes in words that he
reads out loud. For example, David was able to pronounce the words Washington and church
without any laborious work. The word Washington contains the ing sound which is a nasal
sound that can be difficult for some students to decode. The word church is also complicated
for some students to decode because the ch is a digraph, meaning that the two letters represent
a single sound. Since phonemic awareness is very helpful for spelling, I wasnt surprised when I
noticed that one of Davids greatest strengths is his ability to spell words (What is Phonemic
Awareness? 2014). For syntax, David is able to put words and word endings into phrases and

Learning Disabilities Summary

sentences, but he seems to be confused about the meanings of sentence structures, which leads us
into comprehension.
Reading: Comprehension
For comprehension, David tends to struggle with semantics. After David read a sentence,
a few sentence, and a paragraph, I asked him to summarize what he just read and he told me that
he wasnt sure. I realized that David does slightly better when I ask him the meaning behind one
or two sentences rather than a whole paragraph. He seems to struggle less when grasping
information that is given to him in smaller increments. When a student is given minor chunks of
information, its usually easier for them so that they dont have to cram immense amounts of data
into their mind. If a student is unable to comprehend the meanings behind several words in a
passage, then they are most likely going to have a difficult time understanding the meaning of the
whole passage. Although David can decode each word and sentence in a passage, he struggles
with determining how the words and sentences are in relation to each other. When comparing
different types of texts, David tends to grasp the meanings of expository more than narrative.
However, he often has trouble with figuring out the underlying message behind the expository
text. If David reads a passage in which the author is trying to persuade the audience to move to
the U.S., David is unable to come up with that message on his own. I frequently remind him to
look for context clues in the text so that he can figure it out by himself. With activating prior
knowledge, David is also unable to do this unless I ask him questions or tell him to do so. I
usually ask him questions such as, Can you remember something that happened in your life that
reminds you of this? A lot of the time, he needs an impulse to prompt all of his thoughts and
opinions. During the PSSA, David is not permitted to receive any additional help and he ended
up scoring below basic for the reading portion.

Learning Disabilities Summary

Writing and Written Language

As stated before, David exceeds in his spelling aptitudes. If a student is able to spell
words correctly, writing becomes less arduous for them. If there is a word that David is incapable
to spell, I will tell him how to spell it and he will habitually remember it for the future, and he
will not need to ask me twice. Handwriting also comes into account when the attributes of
writing are being discussed. Signs of poor handwriting include difficulty with letter formation,
inconsistent size of letters, slow production, and difficulty staying on the line, awkward grip on
the pencil, and too much pressure or not enough on the pencil. Luckily, David only portrays one
of these characteristics, which is that he puts too much pressure on the pencil. When David is
writing, he presses down extremely hard and that tends to make him become exhausted rather
quickly. If David rapidly becomes tiresome, he most likely wont be able to accomplish as much
as he intended. Since David does not have a wide variety of vocabulary words, he tends to
reiterate words in his writing pieces. When a student doesnt have a variation of words in their
writing, this tends to make their writing pieces dreary. Last of all, David lacks the usage of
grammar, affecting his expressive writing. Not being able to include proper grammar into a
writing assignment can make it hard for the reader to understand what youre trying to express. It
is challenging for David to remember all of the tedious details of grammar in order to incorporate
them into his writing. Bearing in mind that David has a mixture of strengths and weaknesses for
his writing abilities, he scored basic on this section of the PSSA, which is faintly better than his
score on the other sections.

Learning Disabilities Summary

Mathematics: Numbers, Calculations and Processes

Moreover, mathematics is known to be an essential part of education that requires a lot of
abstract thinking. David is deprived of basic math skills, which is one factor to why he scored
below basic on the PSSA for the mathematics part. If I ask him what 3+4 is, he cannot do mental
math to solve this because he needs to write down his work on a piece of paper. Everyone is on a
completely different pace when it comes to mathematics. Some people may be able immediately
acquire basic math skills; while, there are people with learning disabilities who may never master
this skill during their lifetime. David also struggles with his math computation and math problem
solving abilities. When he is instructed to calculate a problem, whether it is addition, subtraction,
multiplication, or division, he often tends to get lost in his steps because he loses focus. Division
problems have a tendency to be the most perplexing for David because he regularly forgets the
steps needed to solve the problem. When he has to solve a word problem, he has trouble with
undertaking each section of the problem. Its important to understand each portion of the word
problem because that helps you establish a problem to set up to solve for the final answer. As a
part of problem solving, money problems often come into significance. If David goes to the food
store with $5 and he buys a bag of chips for $1, he doesnt know how much money he should
receive in return. He doesnt realize that this is a subtraction problem that he has learned in his
prior years. The wordings of certain types of problematic situations tend to be challenging for
David.

Learning Disabilities Summary

Learning and School Behaviors

On the bright side, David is able to navigate the large school with ease and he always
arrives to class on time. He maintains a good system of organization for his school supplies and
he always turns his assignments in on time. All of these features fall into the category of memory
cognition. David has an effective strategy of strictly sticking to a routine and following of the
time limits every day. However, David seems to struggle quite a bit with his focus and attention
which impacts his ability to listen to instructions and to do his best work. He requires frequent
prompts to focus during a teaching session. I believe that David may get distracted due to the
large environment that he is sometimes placed in. Most of the time, I would say that David is a
respectful student who usually cooperates with task learning. Nevertheless, he struggles with
accepting help when needed. He usually states that he understands and does not need help when
he actually is confused. This can make it difficult for the teachers and the volunteers to know
when he needs help or clarification.
Strengths
As a tenth grader, David has multiple strengths in his academic skills and social skills.
David is generally a very friendly student, whether its towards his classmates or his teacher, he
is always kind to everyone and treats them with admiration. He is always willing to initiate
conversations with adults and specific students; I believe that this is an outstanding quality to
have because it makes people enjoy being around David. Additionally, David thrives with his
homework completion and spelling skills. It also makes me satisfied to see that David is always
motivated to do his work. Motivation is a key element of learning that students often lack and it
may be tough when a teacher has to be responsible to push the student to have enthusiasm to do

Learning Disabilities Summary

their work. David recognizes what he needs to get done, and he makes sure that he promptly gets
it done. Last but not least, David loves book and movies. If he is interested in a particular book
or movie, he will recollect every tiny detail about it. Its always great to see a student have a
genuine passion or interest.
Challenges and Recommendations
Conversely, there are challenges that David faces; therefore, I have provided brief
recommendations and strategies for him. Foremost, David has a functional need in the area of
reading comprehension. To improve his comprehension, I decided that David should create an
outline while he reads a passage. To grasp a better understanding of key ideas and concepts, I can
have David highlights these parts of the reading in order to keep track of and look back on. I also
believe that metacognition is a crucial aspect when it comes to reading comprehension. To
monitor his own thinking, David can make notes on the side of every paragraph or vital idea that
he comes across (Adler, 2001). For example, he can make notes on the side that portray his
reaction to a certain portion of the text or he can write something that he is familiar with,
unfamiliar with, or that he can relate to. Making notes on the side of a passage is a sufficient way
of helping yourself to effortlessly recollect ideas from the text after youre finished reading. To
enhance Davids vocabulary skills, I suggest that he writes a few sentences using one or two new
vocabulary words per day. One of the most effective ways of improving vocabulary is by
learning one or two new words per day; learning too many words at a time may make it harder
for you to store it into your long term memory. I also suggest that he is provided a photograph
related to each word or finds one on the internet because a visual will give him a better
perception. Since David struggles with grammar, I will laminate a chart of all of the rules of
grammar and tape it to the top of his desk. When David is writing a paper, he can refer to his

Learning Disabilities Summary

grammar rule sheet so that he can be cognizant and monitor all of his grammatical mistakes. To
support David with his mathematical needs, I will provide a similar strategy. I will create a
laminated Task Analysis that breaks down the step-by-step of how to solve problems for
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The Task Analysis will facilitate him to
effortlessly discern where he made errors when he lost focus while solving the math problem.
Considering David needs to work on money problems, I recommend that he is involved in a few
types of real-life money situations on a daily basis. To fully understand this concept, David
should be put in situations that are realistic and have importance to him, such as going to the
book store or movie store, so that he can make relations and stay concentrated. After seeing
David in the inclusive class as well as the Autistic Support Class, I remarked that the Autistic
Support Class seems like an adequate fit for him. The smaller environment available in the
Autistic Support Class allows the teacher to easily recognize when David is off-task and help
him refocus. With all of these strategies and alterations, I strongly believe that David can
progress in various areas of his academics and be a successful student.

Learning Disabilities Summary

References
Begin to Read: What is Phonemic Awareness? (2014). WriteExpress Corporation.

Adler, C.R. (2001). Reading Rockets: Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension.
The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, 49-5