Student Learning Profile: Student with ADHD & a Student with Articulation Disorder
pdf
keyboard_arrow_up
School
American College of Education *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
5363
Subject
Aerospace Engineering
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
Pages
8
Uploaded by CorporalWaterLapwing37
Student Learning Profile: Student with ADHD & a Student with Articulation Disorder Rachel Bassingthwaite Department of Teaching and Learning, American College of Education LIT5363: Literacy for Exceptional Learners Dr. Kelly J. Roberts July 13, 2023
Student Learning Profile: Student with ADHD & a Student with Articulation Disorder Introduction Classrooms are filled with exceptional learners, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to helping these students thrive in a school environment. About 6.5 million students in the United States of America receive special education services (American College of Education, 2017) and this is only part of the exceptional learner population. That number does not include exceptional learners not receiving special education services. It is important that classroom teachers, other school staff, families, and students work together to create an environment where students can be successful. This team of people, often with the classroom teacher leading, makes sure a student has everything they need (The IRIS Center, 2012). All the teammates need to understand the student, both their strengths and weaknesses. Special education has had a troubled history of only focusing on the weakness of a student; which does not give you a whole picture of the student (American College of Education, 2017). Knowing a student's strengths can help the teacher and the rest of the student's team utilize techniques to best help the student. The best way to get to know a student is to combine formal and informal observations of students to find what works best for them. This can be called creating a student learner profile. This profile should have input from the whole team. A student learner profile should include basic facts about a student such as age and any diagnoses as well as the student's preferences, strengths, weaknesses, likes/dislikes, and any other information the teacher can gather to get a whole picture. This profile should then inform all aspects of instruction from how the student sits to the actual academic tasks the student performs.
Ben’s Learner Profile Ben is a 5-year-old student in Ms. Peter’s kindergarten classroom. Ben has an outside diagnosis of ADHD and has been given an IEP to support him at school. Prior to attending kindergarten Ben attended a private preschool for one year; there he struggled to follow directions and was often given negative reports sent home. His parents are frustrated by these negative reports and come into the school environment with a low level of trust as they do not see similar problems at home. They report he is an energetic boy who is kind, athletic, enjoys being outside, cars, and using his iPad. When reaching out to the preschool they report he often refuses to do craft projects, has troubles interacting with peers, specifically sharing, and wanders the classroom during story times and nap time, but does well one on one. Ms. Peter has taken all of this into consideration after learning about it during the beginning of the year conferences. Her own observations include strengths in large motor skills, mathematics, along with an excitement to try new things. As for weaknesses, she has noticed a lack of small motor skills (holding a pencil, cutting with scissors, playing with Legos), trouble with the arts, and low scores in literacy assessments. To help with the wandering that was reported by the preschool teacher Ms. Peter has offered differentiated seating for Ben during learning times (The IRIS Center, 2012). During lessons on the rug, he prefers to stand so he has a small taped-in box on the floor that he needs to stand in during this learning time; during these lessons, he can grab a fidget of his choice from a bin, access to fidgets is listed in his IEP (The IRIS Center, 2012). During times when some type of solid surface is needed Ben switches between a standing desk and a clipboard (The IRIS Center, 2012). According to his IEP, he is allowed to go to the resource room to do his work so that he has a quiet learning environment, Ms. Peters has given him a pass he has to hand her before leaving the classroom (The IRIS
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
Center, 2012). Also, in his IEP is for him to work with a social group to work on his sharing skills at school. This social group is led by the behavioral specialist at school and is pulled during small group time every Tuesday and Thursday for 20 minutes. Ben’s ADHD affects his working memory, organization, planning, goal setting, and persistence (Creelman, 2021). His working memory deficit makes answering comprehension questions about books challenging. His persistence can be seen often when trying to learn any new skills. It is the beginning of the year, and the class is working on letter names and sounds. Ben gives up quickly and refuses to keep working on these skills which will prevent him from learning this important foundation for reading. His persistence deficit also inhibits his writing skills; he has trouble holding a pencil and will not do the practice it takes to learn how to hold it so that he can practice letter formation. Ben struggles with listening to and following directions because his ADHD inhibits his ability to focus and pay attention to small details (Creelman, KeriLyn (2021). Ben’s Literacy Activity For Ben Ms. Peter wants to first focus on his writing skills, he is currently in the partial alphabetic phase (Moats & Tolman, 2019). In a one-on-one setting in the resources room, which has fewer distractions than the general ed classroom and the one-on-one aspect that Ben thrives in (Creelman, KeriLyn 2021) Ms. Peter is going to have Ben work with an educational assistant. They are going to start the lesson with some finger-strengthening work; Ben will choose between playdough, puzzles, or finger paint (Moats & Tolman, 2019). They will focus on three lowercase letters at a time and work on those until they are mastered (Moats & Tolman, 2019). The teacher will start with large motions using the whole arm to help him learn the letter as well as give Ben some movement (Moats & Tolman, 2019). They will then move to a lined paper (Moats &
Tolman, 2019). During these lessons, Ben will have his fidgets available and flexible seating choices (The IRIS Center, 2012). Clara’s Learning Profile Also, in Ms. Peter’s kindergarten class, Clara has an IEP for her speech articulation. She is 6 years old. Prior to kindergarten, she stayed at home with her grandmother and older sister (10 years old). Her strengths include being a leader, artistic ability, and persistence. Her grandmother raves about her art and they do lots of different art projects together; through this work, her gross motor skills are well developed. Her weaknesses include her articulation skills and regulating her emotions. Grandmother reports that she has trouble calming down when she gets frustrated. Ms. Peter observes that she needs coregulation strategies to calm down. There is a calm down area in the classroom, but Clara cannot use it independently instead she sits in the teacher’s lap and does deep breathing exercises with her. Clara preferers to sit close to the teacher and has been given preferential seating in the classroom. During the beginning of the year conferences, it was observed that Clara’s older sister does a lot of the talking for Clara and will explain to adults what Clara has tried to say. On her IEP Clara is to be given longer time for assessments and cannot have points taken away for answers where her articulation caused the wrong answer. Her articulation delay is with the sounds: /m/, /p/, /n/, /d/, /t/, /g/, /j/, /s/, /sh/, and /ch/ (Morian, 2018). She knows all her letter names but has trouble producing the correct sound and thus has trouble sounding out CVC words, which she is eager to start trying. She is pulled from class 3 times per week for speech therapy and once per week, her speech therapist pushes into the class during journal time. Her speech therapist lets the team (Ms. Peter’s, other specialist teachers, and her grandmother) know
what sound they are working on in speech and encourages the team to correct this sound when Clara is speaking. Clara’s Literacy Activity Clara is working on specific sounds in her speech therapy class which her speech therapist communicates to the team. To support this work and help Clara to learn the letter phonemes that correspond to the letters, in a small literacy group of about four student's Ms. Peter is going to use mirrors and letter flashcards for students to be able to identify letter phonemes by learning about their tongue placement and mouth formation (Moats & Tolman, 2019). While doing this the students will slowly build their own sound wall to refer to with pictures and a mirror available to check their pronunciation when making letter sounds and eventually sounding out words (Moats & Tolman, 2019). Along with this practice, they will also learn visual phonics so that they make the connection between all parts of their body and brain (Moats & Tolman, 2019). Conclusion There are a lot of students with exceptionalities like Ben and Clara’s and many different kinds as well. When a teacher like Ms. Peter creates and uses a learner profile that includes strengths, weaknesses, preferences, and perspectives from the team that surrounds the student, the student can find success.
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
References American College of Education, (2017). LIT5363 Literacy for Exceptional Learners: Module 1 [Part 2 IDEA Categories of Exceptionality]. Canvas https://ace.instructure.com/courses/1961248/modules/items/35899743 Creelman, KeriLyn (2021) "A Literature Review of Understanding and Supporting Students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in the Classroom," Northwest Journal of Teacher Education: Vol. 16 : Iss. 1, Article 3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.15760/nwjte.2021.16.1.3 Moats, L. C. & Tolman, C. A. (2019). Lexia LETRS: Volume 1 – Units 1-7 Moats, L. C. & Tolman, C. A. (2019). Lexia LETRS: Volume 2 – Units 5-8 Morian, Tracy W. M.A. CCC-SLP – GoldCountrySLP@Compiled from Mcleod, S. & Crowe, K (2018) The IRIS Center. (2012). Classroom diversity: An introduction to student differences. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/module/div/ The IRIS Center. (2012). Understanding Accommodations. Retrieved from https://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/micro-credential/micro-accommodations/p01/