6. Case Studies
Case Study 1
Student Name: Camden
Grade Range/Curriculum: Secondary Level (adapted)
Eligibility: Autism
Cognitive Functioning: Camden’s IQ scores fall in the range of mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (Full Scale IQ SS = 49), though his performance on these formal measures is believed to be an underestimate of his actual abilities. One of the features of Camden’s presentation of autism is significant difficulty with expressive language. For this reason, standardized tests do not paint a valid picture of his skills but do give us a sense of his personal strengths and challenges. Camden’s non-verbal scores on intelligence measures are higher than his verbal scores indicating that he understands more than he can communicate. He also demonstrates personal strengths in quantitative reasoning (comparing values) and visual spatial processing (knowing how things fit together or how items appear when manipulated), though his performance in these areas is in the well-below average range compared to same-age peers. Camden also has a strength in memorizing facts such as dates, math facts, states and capitals, etc.
Communication/Social Skills: Camden is polite with adults and peers. He has always had an interest in engaging with peers, though language difficulties have made that challenging. Camden’s receptive language is strong. He understands most social conversation and classroom discussions about familiar topics as evident by his spontaneous and timely non-verbal responses. Recently, Camden has been engaging more with his peers in unstructured situations. He sits with a group of general education peers during lunch and has been observed to laugh appropriately at their conversations, make contextually relevant gestures, and offer help to friends. Most of Camden’s spontaneous spoken language consists of echolalic phrases such as “put it back” or “time to eat lunch.” However, in the last year he has increased his use of spontaneous oral communication to express his wants and needs. Camden loves to talk about Legos, trains, and Magna-Tiles. In most academic or unfamiliar situations, Camden prefers to communicate with a speech-output device. Given time to process information, Camden can generate multiple on-topic sentences using his device.
Literacy Skills: Camden reads at an early third-grade level with comprehension. He benefits from picture cues paired with text. He is very literal in his understanding of written and spoken language. He has difficulty with multiple meaning words and idioms but is able to use picture cues to infer meaning when prompted to check the pictures.
Camden uses speech prediction software to write sentences. He is able to write 3 complete sentences related to a familiar topic or picture when given structured questions to answer. He has difficulty knowing what to write about when the topic is very broad.
Math Skills: Math is a relative strength for Camden. He can measure objects in customary units through the ¼ inch, tell time to the minute on digital and analog clocks, and count up to $1000 in mixed bills. He has also memorized the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts through 12s. While Camden can repeat all the facts, he only conceptually understands addition and subtraction. He can add and subtract 3-digit numbers with regrouping. He is learning to solve multiplication and division with concrete objects. Camden is also learning to use a checklist to solve multi-step applied problems (i.e., word problems).
Case Study 2
Student Name: Cristian
Grade Range/Curriculum: 1st – 3rd grade
Eligibility: Learning Disability (math reasoning, math calculation, reading comprehension, reading phonics); Speech-Language Impairment (articulation and expressive language)
Cristian is also an English Language Learner.
Cognitive Functioning: When accounting for language differences associated with his language learning status and expressive language disability, Cristian’s cognitive abilities are in the low average range (Full Scale IQ SS = 86). When his language differences are not accounted for, Cristian’s performance is in the well-below average range.
Communication/Social Skills: Cristian has a great sense of humor and he is very helpful. He likes to assist teachers and friends at school. His mother reports that he is a great help to them at home, as well. He watches his younger sister and helps with chores around the house. Cristian demonstrates significant expressive language delays in both English and Spanish. The delays that are present suggest that the differences are not just a factor of learning two languages, but of the way that he organizes his thoughts and constructs spoken or written communication. Cristian has difficulty with word finding in both languages and benefits from picture cues, simple picture dictionaries or word banks, and opportunities to show his knowledge without speaking or writing sentences. Given these supports and time to think, Cristian is able to convey his emerging understanding about new academic concepts.
Literacy Skills: Cristian reads words at a first grade level. He is able to comprehend written text at an early kindergarten level. He enjoys books, especially non-fiction texts with lots of pictures. Cristian enjoys making up stories about interesting pictures. Cristian does not enjoy writing. The process of thinking of sentences plus the mechanics of spelling and forming letters is very time consuming and frustrating for him.
Math Skills: Cristian can rote count to 120. He is able to count up to 100 objects when using a tool to separate the objects that have been counted from those that have not been counted. This can be as simple as providing a piece of colored paper on which he can place the counted objects. Cristian understands the concept of addition as combining groups and subtraction as “some going away.” He does not recognize that subtraction is used to make comparisons. He has not memorized any facts yet, and requires concrete objects to solve addition and subtraction. Cristian has difficulty reading math word problems but will draw a picture to represent a word problem that is read aloud to him. Using these pictures, he is able to solve single-step addition and subtraction problems within 10. Cristian is not yet able to distinguish coins. He is able to read the time on a digital clock but does not tell time on an analog clock yet. He has memorized the days of the week and months of the year but is not yet able to apply that knowledge to answer real-world questions.
Case Study 3
Student Name: Robert
Grade Range/Curriculum: Upper Elementary/Middle School
Eligibility: Emotional Disability, Learning Disability (reading and written expression)
Cognitive Functioning: Robert was given the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – 5 as a measure of his cognitive abilities. His full scale IQ was in the average range (Standard Score = 98). However, given varied performance across the subtests in the measure, a Full Scale IQ score is not the most meaningful representation of Robert’s cognitive processing. It is helpful to understand the pattern of relative strengths and weaknesses evident in the different indices of the assessment.
Robert demonstrated strengths in measures of Fluid Reasoning. The subtests in this index measure a student’s ability to recognize relationships among visual objects and apply rules to reason through problems. Robert’s performance was above average in the Fluid Reasoning Index (SS = 125), suggesting that he can make sense of visually presented information and use logic to solve problems. Robert demonstrated average performance in elements of the Verbal Comprehension Index, which measures his ability to verbally express concepts, think about verbally presented information, and express himself using words. His standard score for the Verbal Comprehension Index was 89. Robert performed in the below average range (Standard Score = 80) on the Working Memory Index. This index evaluates a student’s ability to detect, maintain, and manipulate visual and auditory input. It requires attention and concentration. Robert had particular difficulty recalling sequences of pictures and lists of numbers. He became quite frustrated with these activities during testing.
Communication/Social Skills: Robert has a self-described “short fuse.” He has a lot of big ideas about a broad range of concepts, but often gets frustrated when he feels that he can’t express his ideas fully. Robert holds high expectations for himself and becomes very upset when he doesn’t perform as he expects. He engages in some self-injurious behaviors (hitting or pinching himself) or yelling when he makes a mistake. Robert’s peers are wary of him because he becomes loud in the classroom and in varied school settings when he is upset. Robert wants to make friends and understands that his behaviors contribute to peers avoiding him. However, he explains that he does not know how to stop himself from reacting. Robert is learning to ask for a break when he is feeling frustrated, so he can deal with his emotions in privacy with the support of designated staff members.
Literacy Skills: Robert decodes on grade level. However, he has difficulty with comprehension. He can read a grade level passage with 98% accuracy at a rate of 160 words per minute. This is well within the average range. He answers comprehension questions with an average of 70% accuracy. He does not self-monitor his reading comprehension and will read through unfamiliar words without pausing to determine their meaning. He also has difficulty with inferential thinking.
Math Skills: Robert has a relative strength in math reasoning. He can work his way through complex multi-step problems using manipulatives and drawings. He is able to reason his way through addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of whole numbers, decimals, and familiar fractions (e.g., halves, thirds, and fourths). Robert struggles with numbers that he can’t visualize. Mixed numbers, negative numbers, and numbers representing very large or very small values are difficult for him. Robert has not been able to memorize math facts for any operation. He is unwilling to use a calculator because he believes this indicates that he is “stupid.” He wants to draw pictures and tables to solve calculations, but also becomes frustrated when he is not working as quickly as his peers.