4. Case Studies

Case Study 1

Liam is 9 years and 8 months old. He is in the fourth grade and recently went through a triennial special education evaluation. The information shared below summarizes reports provided by his parents and other members of the educational team during the evaluation meeting. The reports can be used to determine eligibility and/or develop elements of the IEP including the PLAAFP and related IEP goals.

Parent’s Report

Liam is a friendly, outgoing child, who wants to do the right thing. He can be hard on himself at times. He does not like to make mistakes. He is beginning to recognize that schoolwork is harder for him than it is for his peers or siblings. This is upsetting to him. I think he tries to hide some of his academic struggles by being silly or making wild guesses. Liam makes friends easily. He has friends at school, home, and on his sports teams. He enjoys participating in soccer and Tae Kwon Do and he currently has a Brown Belt.

Educationally, Liam has been doing much better in the last school year. He feels like his special education teacher is really helping him with reading and math. He feels more confident trying new things in the small group setting before he has to do them in the large general education class with his classmates.

General Education Teacher’s Report

Liam receives most of his instruction in my general education fourth-grade classroom and gets some additional support from special education pull-out for reading and math intervention. Liam is reading at an early second grade level as determined by the informal reading inventory used for school-wide screening and progress monitoring. Comprehension of fiction is a bit harder than non-fiction for him. Liam gets confused when retelling a story and sequencing. He loves to read non-fiction books on storms and history and can readily identify facts about his favorite topics.

He is struggling with the grade-level skills of multiplication facts and multi-step word problems. Liam usually works hard to use his math manipulatives to help him solve problems, but when he gets frustrated, he does inappropriate things with them. For example, he built a slingshot out of a rubber band from our geoboards set and the cardboard from his crayon box. He used the slingshot to fling Unifix cubes across the room. When I asked him why he did that, he shrugged his shoulders and gave me a quizzical look.

In Science and Social Studies, vocabulary and new concepts are confusing for Liam. He can’t remember definitions and often mixes up related words. However, he loves learning about weather and has great information to add to discussions.

Socially, Liam is a friend to everyone in the class and will help others as needed. He usually plays well with classmates during structured activities. He just makes unsafe decisions when things are less structured. Once he got himself stuck in a bookshelf because he tried to hide from the library teacher and his belt loop got stuck on the shelf hooks. Liam is less likely to engage in silly or unsafe behavior during small group instruction. He is better able to focus and speak up during small group time.

We reduce the length of Liam’s assignments or give him extra time to complete work. He also receives the following accommodations: Read aloud for tests/quizzes that are not directly measuring decoding skills, preferential seating away from distractions, flexible schedule to allow for movement breaks, math aids, and graphic organizers.

Social Worker’s Report

I spoke with Liam’s mother to get information for the triennial evaluation. I also conducted a review of cumulative school records to learn more about his educational history. Liam was initially found eligible for special education services as a kindergartener under the category of Developmental Delays. He was re-evaluated and identified for service as a student with a Speech-Language Impairment and Other Health Impairment just before his 7th birthday.

Liam lives with his mother, father, and four-year-old sister in Cityville, Virginia. Family relationships are reported to be good. Liam has “typical ups and downs” in his relationship with his sibling. The family life is stable.

Liam has attended the same school since kindergarten. He has some discipline referrals for unsafe behaviors like throwing rocks at peers during recess, repeatedly not following directions, and hiding from his teacher. He received one day of suspension this year for throwing rocks because another student got hit in the head. (Liam says they were playing pirates and the rocks were his “cannonballs.”) He has no other suspensions and all other disciplinary needs have been dealt with in school.

Liam has a medical diagnosis of ADHD and no other known medical conditions. He completed his vision and hearing screenings with the school nurse and passed both.

Special Education Teacher’s Report

Liam has a current IEP with goals in the areas of listening comprehension, math reasoning, reading comprehension, reading fluency, reading phonics, speech articulation, and written expression. He has been receiving intensive and individualized instruction for four years.

Liam is a kind and respectful student in his interactions with peers and adults, though he sometimes acts impulsively and makes unsafe choices like throwing his pencils at the ceiling to see if they will stick. He is currently below grade level in reading and is struggling with his multiplication and division facts. He also has difficulty with multi-step word problems. Liam is easily distracted in the large group classroom setting. He is able to focus better in small groups

I gave Liam portions of the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-4) to assess his current levels of academic achievement for his triennial evaluation. The WIAT-4 has multiple subtests across broad areas such as reading, mathematics, oral language, and written expression. Standard Scores (SS) on the WIAT are classified as follows (Pearson, 2020):

• Below 70 = Extremely Low
• 70 – 79 = Very Low
• 80 – 89 = Low Average
• 90 – 109 = Average
• 110 – 119 = High Average
• 120 – 129 – Very High
• Above 130 = Extremely High

Liam’s Basic Reading Skills fell in the Very Low range (SS = 79, 8th percentile). His subtest score for Word Reading (SS = 81, 10th percentile) was at the bottom of the Low Average range. He performed in the Very Low range on Pseudoword Decoding (SS = 76, 5th percentile) and Phonemic Proficiency (SS = 74, 4th percentile). These scores indicate difficulty using phonics and phonemic awareness to read unfamiliar words. Liam also performed in the Very Low range on the Reading Comprehension portion of the assessment (SS = 76, 5th percentile). He was asked to read brief passages and answer questions about what he read.

Liam’s performance on measures of Written Expression was mixed. His Spelling skills align with his decoding skills with scores in the Very Low range (SS = 74, 4th percentile). His Sentence Composition was an area of personal strength. He earned a Standard Score of 93 (32nd percentile), which is in the Average range. It is important to note that the Sentence Composition subtest does not incorporate spelling skills into scoring. Liam could write simple, grammatically correct sentences and typically used correct capitalization and ending punctuation. Many of the words were spelled incorrectly.

Liam also had mixed performance in mathematics. His Mathematics Composite Score was in the Low Average range (SS = 86, 18th percentile). His ability to complete math calculations fell solidly in the Average range (Numerical Operations = 97, 42nd percentile). In contrast, his capacity for solving math word problems fell in the Very Low range (Math Problem Solving = 77, 6th percentile). He often had difficulty remembering the various components of the word problems as well as completing required multi-step calculations correctly.

School Psychologist Report

Liam was generally friendly and cooperative during testing. I found it easy to establish rapport with him. Liam’s ability to comprehend and follow directions appeared adequate during testing and he appeared to put forth good effort. He demonstrated some minor difficulties with inattention and impulsivity, though I was able to redirect him and these difficulties did not appear to significantly impact his performance on various tests. I believe that the results of the evaluation are an accurate representation of his overall abilities at this time.

I used the Differential Ability Scales (DAS-II), to assess Liam’s cognitive abilities. The DAS-II provides a General Conceptual Ability (GCA) score, which is a measure of overall cognitive/intellectual functioning similar to a Full-Scale IQ score. The GCA is comprised of several domain or composite scores, including the Verbal Cluster, Nonverbal Reasoning, and Spatial Cluster.

Liam’s overall cognitive functioning was measured to be in Average range (GCA SS = 97, 42nd percentile). His performance remained within the Average range across all broad domain clusters administered.

With regard to Verbal Functioning, Liam’s performance fell in the Below Average range (Verbal Cluster SS = 75). His ability to define age-appropriate vocabulary words as well as his capacity for using verbal abstract reasoning to find similarities between words both fell well below what would be expected for a student of his age and grade. This processing deficit is likely to impact his educational performance when learning new vocabulary concepts and processing vocabulary dense information.

On measures of Nonverbal or Fluid Reasoning, Liam’s performance fell in the Average range (Nonverbal Reasoning = 88). Though he demonstrated strengths in some areas of this assessment, his ability to use abstract reasoning to complete visual patterns fell just Below the Average range. On this multiple-choice task, Liam appeared to answer impulsively at times before scanning all possible response choices, which likely impacted his performance. His capacity for Sequential and Quantitative Reasoning fell solidly in the Average range.

Liam’s performance on measures of Visual-Spatial Functioning fell in the Average range (Spatial Cluster = 105, 63rd percentile). Within this cluster, Liam’s ability to recreate 3D images from pictures using manipulatives fell in the Average range. Similarly, his capacity to draw copies of designs from his immediate short-term memory fell in the Average range.

Additional tests from the DAS-II were administered to assess Liam’s capacity for auditory working memory. His ability to recall a series of verbally-presented numbers (Recall of Digits – Forward) fell in the Lower Extreme range (SS = 68, 1st percentile). His ability to use working memory to manipulate the series of digits in the reverse order from how it was originally presented (Recall of Digits – Backward) fell in the Lower Extreme range as well (SS = 63, 0.4 percentile). This performance indicates a significant weakness in the psychological processes associated with Liam’s working memory.