Case Study of a Child with Autism

Her kindergarten teacher recognized her inability to stay focused compared to her peers. In first grade, Grace took longer to complete assignments, had a tendency to daydream, and had difficulty with paper and pencil tasks which was the most noticable in math. Her first and second grade teachers provided her with additional educational support through small group instruction, and she receives weekly instruction from the reading specialist. Finally, her scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition and Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement show she has deficits in the areas of Working Memory, Passage Comprehension and Math Fluency. Since information has been obtained by a variety of dependable sources, identifying Grace as a learning disable child is

Based on the case study, Sara has many elements and character traits that can identify with her diagnosis of autism. I do strongly believe Sara diagnosis is appropriate and in line with IDEA definition and the revised criteria for ASD in the DSM-5.

Jasmine Keller is a fourth grade student who has been monitored and reported as a student at-risk. Jasmine has a, “weak short-term memory that affects her involvement and progress in the general education curriculum in the areas of reading decoding, reading fluency, reading comprehension, spelling, and math calculations. Her reading level is at second grade. Broken down word recognition is at an equivalent of grade 1.7, and comprehension at 1.3. She has relative strength in vocabulary. If given classroom assessments with a screen reader she is very successful. Her writing skills assessed to be uneven with only weak spelling skills, which is at a first or

Karyss is a 2nd grade, who has repeated second. She will be turning 8 in August. She has an individualized education plan in place to support her writing and reading comprehension. As of April 29th, she started coming to for support with number sense, multiple step word problems and fact fluency. Her math grades have been three all quarter long. Cognitively, she has an even profile: General Conceptual Ability = 95 Average, Verbal = 96 Average, Nonverbal Reasoning = 96 Average, Spatial = 98 Average. These scores show that she has the ability perform on a grade level task. On the Second grade CASE 21, which is a county benchmark assessment she scored two at 39%.

Autism is a very complex, neurobehavioral disorder that includes impairments in social interaction and communication and development skills. It usually occurs during the first three years of life. The disorder has a large range of symptoms and levels of impairment. It can severely change the way someone lives. People with autism show little interest in other people and lack social awareness. It is troubling for them to communicate express themselves, and understand what other people think and feel. In the United States only, more than 500,000 people have been diagnosed with autism. Autistic children may have repetitive body movements such as rocking, pacing, or flapping their hands. The disorder prevents children from forming relationships

Jadarius is a quiet and soft spoken year-old boy at Magee Elementary School. Jadarius's favorite sport is football. His favorite color is blue and he likes to watch Superman videos. In the summer, Jadarius looks forward to playing outside, eating vanilla ice-cream along with his mom's Hamburger Helper. Jadarius states, after high school, he would like to work at a Dollar General store and attend Jackson State University. His favorite subject in school is math. Jadarius has an eligibility ruling of Developmental Delay and Language/Speech Articulation. In reading, current I-Ready data indicates Jadarius recognizes Level K high frequency words, and with support, answer questions about key ideas and details stated in literary or informational

Kayla is a 4th grader with a receptive language disorder. According to her teacher, Ms. Hughes, Kayla is not following directions and seems to not be listening during instruction (e.g., looking around the room, engaging in tasks not related to the activity). Ms. Hughes says she has tried giving detailed directions, but Kayla is still having problems. Sometimes she appears to ignore instructions, frequently only completing the last part of an instruction or makes multiple errors missing important steps of an activity.

She has difficulty time with the concept of subtracting larger numbers, for example, 20-4. She, also, struggled in understanding word problems and keywords in the word problem to understand if the math problem is addition or subtraction.

He demonstrates poor grammar and low reading skills, he is able to do simple arithmetic calculations, can think abstractly, and can follow simple instructions. He is typically oriented to where she is at, whom she is with, and what time it is although he was slightly disoriented when we spoke about his friends and parents. No noticeable deficits in his ability to recall information from various points in time were observed. Overall, he shows the ability to think rationally and make good judgments in regards to decision making.

Autism is categorized by deficits in maintaining social relationships and difficulty communicating. The number of children being diagnosed with autism is steadily increasing. Therefore the need incorporate effective interventions that focus on the development of the individual child has become an imperative component for their success. The key for children with Autism to achieve academic and social success depends upon the collaborative effort that is shared among all parties involved: family, teachers, peers; mental health professionals and the community.

The central problem with this student was memory and cognition. Ever since his diagnosis, teachers did not assign the student any literature that was substantially long and so what was once a minor problem became very serious by the time he was in high school. When I tested his reading level, it was at a 4th grade level, which suggested to me that his previous teachers had simply decided to avoid challenging the student or pressing him to improve. What made this problem even more difficult for the student is that in his mind he had already given up and written himself off as being unable to read literature. This was not an acceptable way of thinking for his English teacher.

The mother explained she cannot read or write in the English Language, but her son’s older siblings can and try to help the younger sibling. The two older siblings have been very successful throughout their educational experience and have not struggled as the younger. She stated that her son as no desire to read at home, and completing homework is an everyday struggle with him. This student is in Tier 3 of the Response to Intervention (Mesmer & Mesmer, 2008) process, and has been referred for testing for special education services.

She has been paired with a peer to assist with reading directions during work time in all subjects. She also exhibits trouble organizing her time and space and sometimes does not go back and complete unfinished work during time allotted in class. She often hands in unfinished assignments and forgets to bring homework home. When asked, she says she didn’t remember that she hadn’t finished the work. She does not use the assignment list that is posted on the blackboard every day to help her get the materials needed for homework unless the teacher goes over it with her individually.

The child generally lacks knowledge of the alphabet, lacks left-to-right directionality in writing, and lacks concept of word (one-to-one matching of spoken and written words). Consistent spacing between words and consistent use of letter-sound correspondences are absent.