Case Study: Abdullah

A Phenomenological Model

ED 486:

Diagnostic Teaching Case Study

AIC

Masters of International Education

Presented by: Nermine Sherif Mahmoud Abed

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Introduction

Abdullah is a 14 year old ninth grader. He has the nicest smile in the class, and he is well
liked by all his classmates. He is always ready to do something fun.
He joined our school this year. All his teachers reported that he is constantly inconsistent, absent-
minded, day dreamer and lazy. He is continuously fidgeting and playing with things at his desk. He
is easily distracted by sound and sight, as well as by his own ideas. He keeps distracting the other
students as well.

His English Language Arts teacher reported that he has a problem in copying from the
board, he is not accurate, he skips parts, his handwriting is illegible, and his copybooks are not
organized.
He cannot link new information to prior knowledge. In reading comprehension exercises, he
cannot guess the meanings of new words from the context, he cannot determine the general ideas
in the passages, and he lacks the stamina for starting a new task. He is very weak in grammar,
and in spelling. He cannot form correct sentences, he cannot write a coherent composition, and
he cannot manage his time properly.
He participates in class discussions only when he is interested in the topic. He shows logic
thinking, but he does not follow rules and instructions. He frequently forgets his copybook, and
sometimes forgets doing his homework. His critical thinking skills are average.
Usually he is not motivated unless he is doing an activity in IT or in art.

His Math teacher reported that he is much disorganized; sometimes he forgets doing his
homework. He may understand a new math concept in class, solve example correctly, but as he
goes home, he does not know how to solve the homework, and he gets very low grades in some
quizzes, and very good grades in others. He showed a severe drop the last quarter. He takes
more time than his colleagues to understand and be able to apply a new mathematical concept,
but if he is approached on a one to one basis, he understands very quickly. He has a problem with
multi steps problems.

His French teacher stated that he lacks self motivation, but if obliged to do an assignment
he does it, and that visual presentation of knowledge improves his understanding. He likes role
playing activities.

His Geography teacher explained that when she focuses on him and insists on letting him
participate in class activities, he achieves better, and that encouraging him improves his
achievement. Repetition of information, and visual presentation and the use of graphic organizers
improve his learning, reward and encouragement motivate him, but punishment has a negative
effect on him. He is only attracted to discussions in which he has the chance to express his
opinion, especially on current events, where he seems to have good insight.

His Science teacher said that he is hyperactive and impulsive, not interested in studying
Science, but he likes the class because he has good rapport with his teacher, and he adores
Hands-on activities.
He focuses better when the teacher frequently asks him to paraphrase what she explains. He
cannot learn by heart especially pathways which require learning a specific sequence of events.
He sometimes gets good grades, but usually he is very careless and he gets very low grades.

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He is always keen to know, but needs to be the center of attention of the class. He has great
imagination, but sometimes this is the cause of his day dreams. He is always caring for others,
liked by most of his classmates, but easily influenced by the bad behavior. He participates in
school activities: He participated in the Science Fair with an experiment that he did at home, on
his own, and won a special award for his creativity. He participated in the International day and
had a very active role.

He constantly puts himself into trouble, as he does not think or plan ahead before speaking
or acting: he is always impulsive.
One day, the math teacher confiscated the mobile of one of the girls in the class and put it on the
teachers desk. While she was writing on the board, he went to her desk, and took the mobile and
hided it from her.
When the teacher discovered and asked who did this, he confessed, and when she asked him
why he did it, his answer was: I dont know, I just did not think about what might happen, I only
wanted to make a favor to my friend.
After school, Abdullah avoids doing his homework, but he may spend the whole afternoon
designing a website as an IT project.
He has affinities to art, IT, regularly goes to the Gym and he is interested in weight lifting.
His parents are very cooperative and understanding, they sought medical advice since he was 4
years old, and he was diagnosed as having ADHD. He was on medication for several years.

Analysis and Overview

After listening to all his teachers reports, studying and analyzing all their comments, writing
together the collaboration report, interviewing him and discussing his learning difficulties using the
tools in the appendix, the following profile is reached:

A- Neurodevelopmental profile:

Abdullah demonstrates excellent verbal and social skills; he is well liked by his teachers and
classmates, which is a proof of good social cognition. He has good critical thinking, always
comes up with original comments and thinks outside the box. He has very good imagination and
creativity, which shows in his interest in activities and his success in projects: Higher Order
Cognition.
He has affinities to general knowledge; he searches more knowledge on the internet and
discusses it with his teachers. He has strong affinities to sports, regularly goes to the gym, plays
weight lifting, and plays football in school, which shows that his gross motor functions are
normal. His art and Craft projects show that his fine motor functions are normal, but his illegible
handwriting may be caused by a degree of graphomotor dysfunction.
His main problem is in attention, especially mental energy controls which are very weak, as he
is always bored in class, feels tired and restless. He has weak processing control, as he cannot
relate new information to previous knowledge, and he has short attention span. Also his
production controls are weak, as he does not learn from his previous mistakes, and he never
plans ahead before speaking and acting.

His receptive language is affected by his attention problem: his understanding of auditory
information is affected by his weak attention.

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His attention problems also reflect on his memory, as his weak attention minimizes understanding,
and it is much harder to remember something that we do not understand. It also weakens his
temporal-sequential ordering capability that is why he cannot easily remember ideas in a
special sequence, especially in science, and geography, or multi steps in math. This also reflects
on his organization and inability to manage his time.
His spatial ordering capabilities are good, and can be used- in the form of visuals and graphic
organizers- to facilitate learning and memorizing.

B- Academic skills and sub skills:

His reading skill is almost at grade level, with a slight delay in recalling of facts, comprehension
and summarization sub skills. He has extremely poor inaccurate spelling. His has very poor
writing skills, with illegible handwriting, poor semantics, syntax and ideation. Complete
disorganization.
His main problem in Math is in recalling multistep procedures, and his being very slow in solving
math problems.

C- Impact of Dysfunctions on Performance:

Weak attention controls, with extremely affected mental energy control, expressed in his
reduced alertness, fidgety and over activity, inconsistent effort, easy mental fatigue, exerting effort
only when pursuing interesting activities (e.g. IT project)
Weak processing control, which appears in the form of extreme distractibility, creativity, and
insightfulness. Inability to associate information to prior knowledge, as a result of weak mental
energy controls.
Weak processing control also causes problems in the short term memory. Superficial processing
causes difficulties in dealing with fine details.
Weak production control is responsible for his impulsiveness and lack of organization, lack of
previewing, deficient self-monitoring, improper pacing and low reinforce-ability.

D- Specialties, Strengths, Talents, Knacks and Affinities:

He is creative, has strong imagination which showed up in his science project, and his
participation in the international day. He has great affinities to IT, arts and crafts, and sports.

E- Behavior and Feelings:

He is well liked by most his classmates, well behaved with all his teachers, has good self
confidence.

F- Environmental Circumstances:

He has a caring, well educated family, one younger brother; he lives in Zamalek in a High class
neighborhood.

G- Health: No other medical factors constraining learning or school adaptation.

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 H- Educational Care: Must be modified as mentioned in the management plan in the
collaboration -sheet.

The Collaboration Worksheet

Childs Name: Abdullah Mahmoud Magdi Grade: 9 Date: April 7th 2013

Person(S) Completing worksheet: Nermine Abed, in collaboration with all his teachers

Parent _ Teacher X_ Clinician__ Other (specify) _Academic Director/ Head of Science Department

Observed Phenomena

OBSERVED
AREAS SEVERITY SPECIFIC FORMS OF PHENOMENA
PHENOMENA
1 2 3 4
Attention He lacks the stamina required to start a
project or an assignment, he has short
concentrating span, he shows fluctuating
Weak Mental Energy level in all subjects and all kinds of
Control X activities.
He has weak salience determination, he
copies irrelevant parts from the board,
and sometimes skip parts, new
information do not stimulate prior
knowledge, no active processing of
Weak Processing Control X ideas.
Weak previewing of assignments, no
self monitoring, no reinforcibility, no
punishment can scare him, no time
Weak Production Control X management
Remembering Problems with Short-Term He seems to understand from the first
Memory X time, as long as he is focusing
Insufficient Active Working Most of the time he does not keep
Memory X working on a math problem with more
than two steps

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Incomplete Consolidation in
Long-Term Memory
Reduced Access to Long-
Term Memory
Understanding Weak Language
Processing
Incomplete concept
Formation
Weak Visual Processing
Slow Data Processing
Small Chunk-Size Capacity
Excessive Top-Down or
Bottom-Up Processing
*Key to severity rating:
1 = Not a problem ; 2 = A slight problem ; 3 = A moderate problem ; 4 = A sever problem
AREAS OBSERVED PHENOMENA
Output Weak Language Production
Disappointing Motor Performance
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He has a problem in classifying
knowledge, associating pairs, he cannot
mentally present knowledge by himself.
Sometimes he understands a lesson in a
certain class, but as he goes home he
forgets the correct procedures, or in a
X quiz he cannot solve similar questions.
When he succeeds in associating or
classifying knowledge, he can access
archived knowledge, but this rarely
X happens due to attention problems.
He has a real problem in semantics and
X syntax
X He cannot summarize paragraphs, nor
get general ideas from long passages,
does not follow rules.
X He understands better by auditory
repetition
X Due to attention problems and
secondary active working memory
affection his pace is much slower than
most of his peers, and he has a problem
in managing his time, as well as in self
monitoring.
X He works better when guided step by
step in Math, Science lab, social studies
activities, and writing activities.
X No apparent signs of any domination.
SEVERITY SPECIFIC FORMS OF PHENOMENA
1 2 3 4
X Weak semantic, syntax, paragraph
formation, ideas generation, slow
verbal expression.
X Very bad illegible handwriting,
 Persistent Organizational Failure X Frequently forgets his tools, his
homework, his books,...etc.
He cannot manage his time,
Problematic Problem Solving X

Skill Acquisition Slow Reading Development
Inaccurate Spelling Patterns
Impeded Written Patterns
Underdeveloped Mathematical
Skills
Adaptation School-Related Sadness
X He reads very slowly has a problem in
finishing reading comprehension a on
time, cannot understand the meanings
of words in context, frequently forgets
the meanings of vocabulary words
discussed in class
X Very weak spelling in all languages
X Cannot write full sentences, incoherent
ideas and paragraphs
X Delayed acquisition of all math skills
due to attention and language
understanding problems
X Normal behavior

Bodily Preoccupations X Normal behavior

Noncompliant Behavior X Disruptive class behavior, trying to be

the hero of the class
Impaired Interactions X

Lost Motivation X In all subjects, he does not seem to

have enough motivation and stamina to
do his assignments, nor to improve his
skills.
*Key to severity rating:
1 = Not a problem ; 2 = A slight problem ; 3 = A moderate problem ; 4 = A sever problem

Strengths and Affinities:

Abdullah likes the P.E. class, he plays football in school, and he is the goal keeper of his team. He
also regularly goes to the Gym at the sports club, for the past two years, and he is interested in
weight lifting.

He also likes the computer class, and performs well in any assignment involving IT activities, in
group work he likes to be the IT specialist of the group.

He likes the Arts and crafts class, although he is not very good in drawing and painting, but he is
good in making 3D models and Papier mch crafts.

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He is liked by most of his peers; socially he can keep a good relationship with all his colleagues,
loving to play the role of the hero of the class.

He wants to become a pilot or an architect.

Elaboration and Additional Comments on the Observed Phenomena:

Abdullah's results are inconsistent in all subjects; His grades range between B- and D. His grades
in quizzes are unpredictable by most of his teachers. He is always day dreaming and demotivated.
He always lacks the stamina that his peers have especially when starting a new project.

All his teachers stated that when he is obliged to do an assignment he does it, but with no desire.
Auditory repetition and repetition of paired association and personal one to one focus with him
improve understanding.

Also all his teachers mentioned that when they encourage him, his attitude and attention improve
a lot.

When he had a math tutor at home, his grades were much better, as the tutor left him, he had a
severe drop in his math grades.

Academic Sub-skills

SKILL AREA SUBSKILL STATUS COMMENTS

1 2 3 4
Reading X Has a problem in understanding suffixes
Decoding Accuracy and prefixes, and relating word roots
X
Decoding Speed Slower reader than most of his peers
X Has a problem in classifying knowledge and
Recall of Facts facts, as well as pairing associations
X Slow and misunderstanding of words,
Comprehension sentences and paragraphs
X Cannot extract main general ideas, thus
Summarization unable to summarize like peers
X Slow understanding, and inability to link new
Speed / Automatization information to prior knowledge
Spelling Accuracy in Isolation X Very weak spelling of most words

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Accuracy in Context
Writing Pencil Grip
Fluency/Ease of Output
Legibility
Mechanics during Writing
Mechanics in Isolation
Written Language
Ideation
Organization for Writing
Organization of Writing
Mathematics
Factual Recall
Speed of Factual Recall
Procedural Recall
Procedural Speed
Word Problems
Mathematical Language
Visualization
Symbolic Representation
Understanding Concepts
*Status Ratings:
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X
Weak grammatical capabilities
X Normal but slow
X Problem in generating and writing ideas
X Very bad hand writing, and very weak
expression of meanings and ideas
X
No punctuation nor capitalization
X
No punctuation nor capitalization
X , very weak language procession and
production
Inability to generate ideas, nor to express
X Ideas in writing
X Weak organization skills, cannot think of
main ideas before writing
X The whole written work is incoherent and
disorganized
X
Slightly delayed
X
Slightly delayed
X Needs repetition and excessive practice to
reach automatization
Extremely slow and stops in the middle of
an assignment to day dream or resume
X working in a wrong direction.
Weak, due to delayed language processing
X and misunderstanding
With repetition and one to one guidance by
X the teacher, can be acquired.
X Weak spatial processing and weak
imagination, which is why his weakness in
geometry is exaggerated.
X Weak in algebra, due to weak capabilities in
pairing associations and classification
Is compensated for by excessive practice to
X reach automaticity.
 1 = Above grade level ; 2 = At grade level ; 3 = Less than one year below grade level ;
4 = More than one year below grade level.

Comments on academic content areas (e.g., history, science, foreign language):

Geography:

He is usually day dreaming, but he is well engaged in discussions related to current events and
general knowledge. He likes to think outside the box, in untraditional ways. He does not exert
enough effort in studying at home.

Science:

He is attracted to topics explaining mysteries in nature, such as genetics, evolution, electricity,

optics, but he forgets minute details.

He is interested in doing Hands on activities, but is not organized, and as his teacher says: his
work ends up into a mess, and never finishes his experiment on time.

He has great imagination, but sometimes this is the cause of his being tuned out.

He does his homework everyday, solves worksheets in class, but hardly gets the passing grade.

He used to forget his book and copybook, but with the teacher's persistence he became more
organized.

French:

His grades fluctuate; he has a short concentration span.

When he learns a new grammar rule he applies it properly in class, but he cannot solve his
homework well, and he does not achieve well in quizzes.

Comments on academic interests:

Abdullah is not attracted to a specific subject, yet he needs to be directly pointed to by the teacher
for better performance.

He performs well in activities involving IT, hands- on activities, and modeling.

He is interested in class discussions involving science and current events.

He wishes to become a pilot or an architect.

Assessment and Management

Summary of Recent Test Results (If Applicable)

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His last fall and winter MAP results in reading and writing show a delay of one to two semesters,
in Math he shows good logic but weak mental math. In Science his level is appropriate for his
grade level.

Additional Consultation and/or Assessment

0 He used to go to Dr. Yasser Nasr (Psychiatrist) who prescribed him Strattera 5years
ago.

1 Now he goes to Dr. Nasser Loza who prescribed him Retalin and Concerta, which are
not easily obtained in the Egyptian market, which - as said by his mother- is why his
attention problem is exaggerated since he stopped taking the medications 4 months
ago.

Management Proposal

Demystification Plans:

A meeting is set for all the teachers teaching Abdullah, aiming to reach an agreement on the
vocabulary that will be used by all of them while discussing his condition with him.

He will be told that everyone's mind needs enough fuel to get work done, to stay alert all day long,
and that some activities require more fuel than others. He needs to use more energy to listen in
class than to talk to his classmates. His attention problem is temporary, and that nobody is
required to handle this big amount of knowledge in multidisciplinary areas except in school, but as
he joins the faculty that he likes he will be focusing only on the subjects that he likes.

A lot of kids do things too quickly without thinking enough; they are impulsive, which gets them
into trouble.

Kids with attention problems are very imaginative and interesting people. They notice things and
think up ideas that are very interesting.

Many people with attention control problems become very successful when they grow up, as they
are great at thinking up original ideas and inventing new things.

Also, it is important to tell him that this problem is not serious, and to discuss with Abdullah the
difficulty he is experiencing in Science and Geography. Explain to him that these classes
demands of attention to details, and large amount of information make them difficult subjects for
many students.

Encourage Abdullah to express the elements of these classes that are hard for him in an honest
way. Explain to him that all students have a combination of skills that affect their performance,
making some tasks easy and other tasks more difficult.

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Reassure him that attention problems are very common among students, and that they can be
compensated for by following some helpful strategies, starting by keeping an alertness log.

Discuss Abdullah's strengths, for example, his being good in IT and use of computers can allow
him to present his work typed instead of hand written, to experience the feeling of the neat
presentation of work.

May be if he takes notes using his iPad, or lap top in class this will be able to help him in
organizing his notes.

Also he can be given graphic organizers to use in note taking and as a way for summarizing
lessons.

Show him the ways he can use his strengths to improve his performance in Science and
Geography. Show him the strategies that he can follow in order to stay focused and engaged,
even if he is not that much interested in the topic being studied.

Try to help him think about his future, and what he would like to be after graduation, trying to show
him the value and the meaning of the current activities in school.

Major Priorities for Management:

- Consistency control: Abdullah has a problem in keeping his mental energy flowing at a constant
rate.

- Cognitive activation: He usually gets off track, thinks about irrelevant ideas, because he distracts
himself with excessive unrelated information.

- Depth of processing: He cannot focus on minute details, but he understands the main idea.

- Fidgeting and playing with things during class.

- Thinking before saying and doing something

- Self monitoring for alertness, mental energy, and processing controls.

- Staying focused on-task, especially in science and geography, also in mathematics and English
Language Arts, when given multi step activities.

- Completing and submitting assignments on time.

- Time management

- Organization

Suggested Accommodation Strategies in School:

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He must be seated close to the teacher, and the teacher must agree with him on a cue to get his
attention back.

Let him use an Alertness log in every class to be followed by him to review how well he focuses
throughout the day.

Abdullah must learn concept mapping techniques and graphing organizers, as a tool for facilitating
understanding and maintaining focus.

He must be encouraged to develop his own memory plans to help him organize knowledge.

Make use of his affinity to art and IT in using these creative abilities to organize information.

Find a person who shares affinities with Abdullah, to help him review the progress he makes in his
organizational plan.

Suggested Forms of Direct Remediation in School:

All Abdullah's teacher must bring him to the front of the class at the beginning of each session.

They must agree with him on using a special sign or cue whenever he starts to be out of focus, to
catch his attention back.

Before making an important announcement, or introducing a new concept, give him a sign.

The tasks given to Abdullah must be broken down into shorter parts, and he can be given a short
1 to 2 minute break between different parts, where he is allowed to stretch and walk around. This
can reduce sleepiness and enhance alertness.

He must fill in an " Alertness log" during all his classes, and he must be rewarded whenever his
focusing time improves.

In Math, he must be given extra drills with all the Math problems solved in class on daily basis,
with some of the steps presolved to help him if he is not alert enough in copying from the board.

To practice thinking and planning before talking, let him practice conversations- especially in
languages- with one or two of his classmates on a specific topic by writing down the possible
questions and answers.

He must be encouraged by his Science and Geography teachers to meet them privately during
break time, or during P.E. classes to discuss ways for improving his performance in their classes.
He must understand that this is a very important step that often leads to better results and quick
improvement.

In English language Arts, his teacher must help him learn how to take notes, to summarize, to get
the main idea from each paragraph.

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Another copy of the work done in class can be given to him, to avoid that he copies wrong data, to
make sure the correct information is given to him and he can study it.

Extra cumulative exercises on vocabulary must be given to him, as well as extensive use of
graphic organizers as a tool to help him stay in focus, organize data, and consolidate data.

In Science and Geography, he has to learn on focusing on keywords, and to practice extracting
main concepts, and to learn to map concepts and use graphic organizers.

Also he has to practice strategies for solving multiple choice questions.

In various subjects, he has to learn how to evaluate the outcomes of tasks, by brainstorming the
different alternatives, and the successful and unsuccessful plans.

He must get used to organize his materials before starting any task to ensure efficiency.

He must keep all his materials accessible and organized, including his books and copy books.

Allow him to self evaluate his assignments, using rubrics, as this can show him his mistakes to
enable him to self correct without embarrassment.

Hands- on activities must be used more frequently by teachers to facilitate learning for him.

Suggested Program for Management at Home:

Abdullah must monitor his work at home, by setting a timer at equal intervals during his homework
time, to enable him to check his alertness continually.

He must be given frequent short breaks, by dividing assignments into short tasks.

His parents must seek medical advice, since he showed improvement on medication, he may
return to Retalin, which may allow him to concentrate with greater intensity and duration.

His parents can involve him in trips and tours and active projects to induce greater levels of
alertness, reinforcing formal learning through direct experience.

Since he has trouble getting started with assignments, his mother can help him by getting things
organized initially, by writing the first line of a report, or by helping him develop a plan of action.

He may benefit from changing the place of studying every ten or twenty minutes.

Asking him to summarize the key points after reading a chapter, or the given data in a math
problem can help him develop proper saliency determination.

Minimizing the sources of distractibility at home can improve his depth of focus.

Repeating instructions or directions, and asking him to repeat what was just said while giving him
good eye contact can help retaining the information in his short term memory.

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His parents can guide him in practicing active reading: underlining important words or sentences,
summarizing

Parents must give him Extra drills on spelling and vocabulary, by playing games which strengthen
those skills.

Encouraging him to plan before writing a report or starting a project can help him develop
previewing skills.

Discussion of response previewing and playing the what if? game can increase his awareness
of the need to look ahead and foresee outcomes before acting, as a way to help him improve
impulsiveness.

Use of Strengths and Affinities:

Abdullah can use his interest in sports and in hand crafts in studying: for example, he can make
models in studying the different parts of the digestive system, or in modeling transfer of electrons
in ionic bonds, or sharing electrons in covalent bonds.

Abdullah must be encouraged by all his teachers to discover the learning strategies that worked
for him in the past, in order to be followed in the future.

He can work in groups in solving Math and Science assignments, continually monitoring questions
after each step, paraphrasing after reading each paragraph, checking math calculations after each
step.

Encourage them to set plans before working on a project, setting goals of each task, discussing
strategies with each other.

Provisions for Humiliation Protection:

All Abdullah's teachers must know that any comment must be given to him in private.

They must try to encourage him and give positive comments, and point at his improvement even if
slight.

All cues or signs given to him must not be noticed by other students.

Avoid situations that can make him feel inadequate. Only question him if he is alert and focusing.

Additional Services and Treatments:

All his teachers would better give him handouts of class notes, instead of depending on his
copying from the board.

Monitoring and Follow-up Plans:

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 - Regular and close follow-up of Abdullahs daily Alertness log must be reported to the
administration by the end of each day to evaluate the efficiency of interventions and
accommodations in school.

- Follow-up of his weekly quizzes grades, to monitor his improvement.

- Follow-up of his daily homework submission and monitor improvement in his organization
skills.

- Follow- up his MAP results.

- Regular meetings with his teachers to discuss and evaluate his progress

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 Appendix

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 Attention Dysfunction:
An Inventory of traits

Part A- Mental energy Control

{ - = A definite finding, +/- = a possible finding, + = Not a finding}
Parameter Trait - +/- +
Arousal/Alertness Has trouble falling or staying asleep x
Shows evidence of fatigue (e.g., yawning,
stretching)during the day. x
Is fidgety when needing to concentrate x
Reveals highly inconsistent/ erratic patterns of attention x
Mental Effort Has trouble getting started with work x
Has difficulty finishing work x
Can work only with things that are particularly interesting
to him x
Effort is unpredictable ;can work well at sometimes but
not others x

Impact(s): Cognitive/ Academic: Behavioral: Social: .....

Part B - Processing Controls

Parameter Traits - +/- +

Saliency Can't tell what's important when listening or studying
determination
x
Seems to remember unimportant information better than
important facts or ideas. x
Is easily distracted by irrelevant sounds/background noises x
Concentrates on visual stimuli that others would ignore x
Processing Requires repetition of instructions x
Depth and
Detail
Does best with" the big picture"; conceptualizing, generalizing x
Has trouble entering new material in memory x
Mental Seems passive in learning; doesn't relate new information
Activation with what is already known x
Is unusually creative/inventive/imaginative x
Has trouble getting involved /engaged in school subject
matter x
Has a mind that is too active, free associates, daydreams too
easily x
Focal
Maintenance
Often doesn't concentrate long enough x

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 Concentrates too long at times x
Is not a good listener x
Misses key Parts of directions/ explanations x
Satisfaction x
Is hard to satisfy; seems to want things all the time
Control
Can concentrate well only on exciting stimuli x
Is notably restless; craves excitement x

Impact(s): Cognitive/ Academic: Behavioral: Social: .....

Part C- Production Control

Parameter Traits - +/- +

Previewing Fails to look ahead and consider possible consequences x
before doing or saying things
Does school work without planning or thinking enough before x
starting it.
Has trouble accomplishing transitions from one activity or task x
to next
Has trouble estimating or foreseeing solutions or work x
outcomes in school
Facilitation And Does inappropriate things without realizing it x
Inhibition
Does a lot of things the hard way x
Has a way of doing the wrong things at the wrong times x
Says inappropriate things without realizing it x
Tempo Control Seems to have trouble allocating, organizing and/or x
estimating time needs
Often dawdles, is late, misses deadlines x
Does many things too slowly x
Is "hyperactive" x
Self-Monitoring Loses track of what he is doing during a task or activity x
And Self-
Correcting
Doesn't notice when others seem displeased x
Doesn't realize when he has said or done something wrong x
Makes frequent careless work errors without noticing x
Reinforce-ability Doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes x
Is not greatly affected by punishment x
Doesn't use methods that have worked well previously x
Doesn't really respond properly to rewards x

Impact(s): Cognitive/ Academic: Behavioral: Social: .....

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 Mathematics Interview

Key to Part one

0= Always true for me; 1= Mostly true for me; 2 = Sometimes true for me; 3=
Not true for me

STATEMENTS
COMPREHENSION 0 1 2 3
1- Some students say they get pretty mixed up the first time a teacher
explains something in math class x
2- There are kids who can do plain math problems pretty well, but they
have lots of trouble figuring out word problems x
3- Some kids have a tough time understanding vocabulary words that
come up in math classes x
4- There are students who find it very hard to explain something they
have learned pretty well in math x
5- It is possible for someone to learn math more easily by studying a
correctly solved problem than by learning about that kind of problem in
class
6- Some people when they do math have a lot of trouble picturing
shapes, dimensions and sizes of things in their minds x
7- There are students who can do a lot of things the right way in math,
but they don't really understand what they are doing x
8- It is possible to try to memorize things in math instead of
understanding them x
9- Some students think they understand something during class and
then later realize they didn't really get it x
10- For many students thinking is harder in math than it is in other
subjects x
MEMORY
11- It can take too long to remember math facts on a test x
12- Some kids have trouble remembering how to do things in math x
13- It can be much faster and easier to do hard math problems using a
calculator x
14- There are students who forget what they are doing in the middle of
a math problem x
15- Some kids do much less math in their heads than other kids
x
16- A lot of students find that when they look at a math problem, it just
doesn't look familiar to them. Every problem seems very different
x

17- Doing things in the right order is one of the hardest parts in math
x

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18- Some people have to stop and think about everything in math;
none of it seems to be fast and automatic for them
x

19- In math it can be very hard for some people to remember exact
shapes when they hear the names x
20- Some kids complain they understand how to do things in class and
then they forget how on an assignment or a test
x

ATTENTION 1 2 3 4
21- It is possible to make too many careless mistakes in math because
of rushing through stuff x
22- It can be very hard to keep concentrating during math class
x
23- Some kids say they keep getting very tired when they do math
x
24- A student might complain that there are too many little details to
think about in math x
25- There are students who sometimes have trouble in math because
they don't really stop and think and plan enough before they do a
problem
x

26- It can be very hard to get started on math problems x

27- There are students who have problems estimating; they have no
idea about what the answer will be before they start a problem
x

28- Some students have minds that don't like subjects like math
because there's only one correct answer all the time x
29- For some people it is extremely boring to check over math work
x
30- Some kids are very inconsistent in math; they do really well
sometimes and very poorly other times x
PROBLEM SOLVING/ORGANIZATION 0 1 2 3
31- There are students who have trouble figuring out what to do first
when they try to solve a math problem x
32- When some kids get stuck on doing a math problem one way, they
just can't think of new things to try to solve the problem x
33- It can be hard to figure out what's important and what isn't in a
word problem x
34- It can be very hard knowing what and how to study for a math test x
35- Some students never bother to test themselves when they are
studying math x

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 ATTRIBUTIONS
36- Math makes certain people very uptight x
37- Some kids mess up on tests because they get too nervous x
38- Doing math makes some people feel dumb x
39- There are students who believe they are so far behind in math that
they can never catch up x
40- It is possible to feel very unlucky in math x

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 The Writing Interview

Key to Part one

0= Always true for me; 1= Mostly true for me; 2 = Sometimes true for me; 3=
Not true for me

STATEMENTS
GRAHOMOTOR FUNCTION 0 1 2 3
1- kids sometimes complain that their hand gets very tired when they
have to write a lot x
2- Some students have an unusual way of holding a pencil or pen x
3- there are kids who think they write too slowly on tests and
homework x
4- Some People can print much better than they can use cursive x
5- Lots of students say forming letters is not as easy for them as it is
for other kids x
EXPRESSIVE LANGUAGE
6-There are students who find it hard to get their ideas into words
when they speak in school x
7- Some kids make too many grammar mistakes when they write x
8- While they write, some students have to think too long about how
to say their ideas on paper x
9- When some people write, they have trouble using good vocabulary;
they use a lot of easy words x
10- Some Kids have trouble describing things well in a class
discussion x
IDEATION
11- Some students find it very hard to think up topics or decide what
they want to write x
12- There are kids who would hate to have to write a story x
13- It can be very difficult to know what to write or include in a report x
14- A lot of kids say it's not easy for them to come up with their own
original ideas about things in school x
15- Some People say it's really hard to write about their opinions or
what they think about things x
MEMORY
16- It is confusing to remember so many things at once (like
spelling)while writing x
17- Some kids have much neater handwriting when they copy from
the board than when they write a paragraph x
18- When writing a report or story it's not always easy for some kids
to remember what they wanted to write x
19- Some kids have said that they have much better ideas when they
speak than when they write x
20- Problems with spelling makes writing especially hard for some x

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people
ORGANIZATION
21- It can be really hard to get started with a writing assignment x
22- When they write, some students have trouble getting their
thoughts down in the right order x
23- Some students don't think much in advance about what they are
going o write; they just start writing x
24- It is hard to know how long it will take to write a report or a story x

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