Diagnostic Case Report

Diagnostic Case Report

Name

Course

Instructor

Institution

Location

Date of Submission

Student Information

Name of student:P.T.

Mailing Address:P. O. Box 32141, Barrigada GU 22821

Home Phone No:(671) 726-8427

Date of Birth: October 12, 2005

Age: 7 years and 9 months

Child’s First Language:English

Ethnicity:Chuukese (Mother)/Chamoru (Father)

Grade in School: 3rd

School:Vantage Elementary School

Teacher:Ms. Charfauros

Parents’ Name:T. S. (Mother) and H. T. (Father)

Examiner’s Name:Judy Jakes

Dates of Assessment:October 15, 2013; October 25, 2013;

November 15, 2013; and November 25, 2013.

Diagnostic Information

Parent /Home

This diagnostic information is derived from the assessment of P.T. that was done between 15th October and 25th November, 2013. By the time of initialization of the assessment, P.T. was aged 7 years and 9 months. P.T. is currently a third grade student in Vantage, a local elementary school situated at Mangilao, Guam. P.T. understands his mother language, Chuukese, as well as English. However, he is only able to speak English. His mother talks to him in Chuukese and he replies in English. He has a younger brother aged three years. Apart from his brother and two parents, he lives with a cousin aged six years. Information gained from his mother indicated that P.T. showed normal development when he was a toddler. He started uttering words at the age of 10 months. He started walking at the age of twelve months.

P.T.’s mother explained that he was hardly diagnosed with serious illnesses during the early infancy stages. He never encountered serious accidents. Prior to entering school, his mother recounted that he showed no interest of reading books. Also, he did not like listening to others as they read books. Since the time he entered school for the first time, he has been experiencing difficulties in reading. However, he does not have visual and auditory problems and thus, he has never used supporting apparatus. According to his father, P.T. likes mathematics, despite the fact that he doesn’t like reading. As well, he likes riding bikes and music. His father described him as a jovial, caring and social child. However, as a result of delays in learning how to read and to write, P.T. was referred to the School of Education Literacy Center. According his father, P.T. experiences difficulties in recognizing letters and pronouncing words. This is one of the main reasons why P.T. experiences problems in writing English words. He becomes upset sometimes on the issue, especially when he realizes that he is not able to read and write like his classmates. Sometimes, his anger translates into physical reactions, such as crying.

Parents

P.T.’s father is currently a warehouse worker. He has studied up to high school level and is aged 46 years. He is of Chamorro descent but he understands English language clearly. He uses English language to communicate to P.T. Both the father and the mother live at Guam. P.T.’s mother started living at Guam fourteen years ago after marriage. She had been living at Chuuk, the place where she was born. This explains the fact that, unlike P.T.’s father, the mother talks to P.T. in Chuukese language.

Teacher and School Information

Information collected from his teachers at Captain Price Elementary School showed that P.T. is in the third grade. Prior to the commencement of the assessment, he had been present in the school for the past four weeks. San Diego quick assessment describes various levels of word recognition among different individuals. Based on the description, P.T. can be said to be at the pre-premier level. The pre-premier level comprises of individuals who have difficulties in reading letters pronouncing words and retelling stories. Even after significant support from teachers and parents, such individuals still experience problems in reading, copying written words and sentences and comprehending their meanings. After engaging in classes, such individuals are hardly able to even write down what they have understood or what has been taught. When they try to write down what they have understood or heard, they write sentences and phrases with no specific meanings. In other words, they experience difficulties in using written language to send message. The problem with the issue is that many teachers do not understand the condition that such individuals have; they conclude that such a student is simply a poor performer. The teachers of such individuals respond by concentrating their efforts on them and monitoring their progress with the aim of enhancing better performance in the future.

During the assessment, P.T.’s cumulative information was collected from kindergarten to the present level at Vantage Elementary School. Information on attendance showed that P.T. had skipped two days, five days and four days in kindergarten, first grade and second grade respectively. During the assessment, the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) 6th ed. was administered at all the three levels. The results of the assessment showed that P.T.’s reading abilities were below average at all the three levels. Information gathered from SAT-10 and SY 12-13 showed that P.T.’s total reading skills had not improved significantly. However, his ability to apply phonetic analysis to consonants was found to be average. His comprehension skills were also found to be below average at all the three levels. However, his score in mathematics was average. Thus, the results of the assessment confirmed the information that had been given by P.T.’s parents. The results of the DIBELS 6th ed. assessment are described in the table below:

Table 1: DIBELS 6th ed.

GRADE DATES ADMINISTERED

Kindergarten 06/10/10 02/09/11 09/22/11

Initial Sound Fluency 0 7 X

Letter Naming Fluency N/A N/A

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency X 38 40

Nonsense Word Fluency X CLS

11 WRC

0 CLS

16 WRC

0

First Grade 08/31/11 01/12/12 5/22/12

Initial Sound Fluency X X X

Letter Naming Fluency 21 X X

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency 19 38 40

Nonsense Word Fluency CLS

11 WRC

2 CLS

24 WRC

6 CLS

25 WRC

6

Oral Reading Fluency X CLS

8 WRC

11 CLS

13 WRC

11

Second Grade 06/22/12 02/03/13 04/21/13

Initial Sound Fluency X X X

Letter Naming Fluency 21 X X

Phoneme Segmentation Fluency 18 37 39

Nonsense Word Fluency CLS

12 WRC

2 CLS

24 WRC

6 CLS

23 WRC

6

Oral Reading Fluency X CLS

8 WRC

11 CLS

12 WRC

11

** WRC means “Word Read Correctly”; CLS means “Correct Letter Sound”

Comments of teachers in various reports in the three levels were also evaluated. Teachers’ comments in the report card at the kindergarten level showed that P.T. acquired many skills during the first quarter. However, the comments indicated that P.T. needed constant monitoring and redirection to stay on focus or to concentrate on his work during the kindergarten level. Despite this, he showed enthusiasm when engaging in activities that pleased him. The kindergarten report card showed that P.T. experienced difficulties in acquiring verbal skills. The teacher’s report indicated the P.T. was always reported as “S – sometimes / developing skills.” He was reported to develop ability to match opposite sets and to describe objects. He was developing fine motor skills portrayed by ability to hold pencil/crayon correctly. He was also reported to develop Social Work Habits skills that were portrayed by his ability to complete certain interactional tasks. Kindergarten report card also had information on mastery level tasks. The Dolche word list assessment was also applied on the data collected, as a pre-and post-test. Result of the Dolche word list assessment showed that on pre-test, P.T. was able to identify and to give correct meanings to 6 (23%) out of 23 words. The post-test result showed that T.T was able to identify the correct meanings of 8 (36%) out of 23 words. In other words, the results of the Dolche word list assessment showed slight improvement in P.T.’s ability to identify and to give correct meanings to words.

Teachers’ comments during the second grade year still showed that P.T. had difficulties in focusing on his work. The comments showed that P.T. often sought attention from his classmates, which distracted him from completing his assignments. His second grade report card shows that his reading and writing skills were below the GDOE standards. The report card shows that P.T. had little ability to apply mathematics standards but his ability to solve problems was also below standards. The second grade teachers commented that P.T. needed further support to enable him stay focused on tasks and to complete homework assignments. Recent comments made by teachers during the school year 2013 indicate that P.T. has problems in reading and comprehending science. In that area, teacher’s report indicates that the major problem with P.T. is inability to complete homework assignments. The teacher suggests that P.T. needs to be motivated consistently so that he can be able to complete homework.

Literacy Center

Student Interview

The perceptions of P.T. towards reading and writing were gathered using the literacy student interview schedule. A question that was posed to P.T. sought to determine his understanding of the purpose of reading. P.T. stated that the purpose of reading is to “become smart.” He was then asked how he tackles words that are difficult to read. Although he was not able to respond to the question clearly, it became apparent that P.T. uses the sound strategy. When he was asked to name people who he believed are good leaders, P.T. mentioned his parents and two classmates. He explained further that he believed the two classmates are good readers because “they are asked many times by the teacher to read.” P.T. added that the two are able to sound out words clearly and to think well when they come across new things or things they have not encountered before. P.T. also stated that one of the two classmates always provides assistance to others when they encounter difficulties in reading and writing.

P.T. was also asked to name his favorite book. He replied that “Three Little Quacks” is his favorite book. When asked to explain why this was his favorite book, P.T. replied that he understands it and they read together with his father. He stated that he likes reading even though he encounters problems in most cases. He stated that he would like to become a better reader so that he can be able to write a story. P.T. was also asked to explain what he considers to be the best part of reading. He replied that he likes looking at pictures in books, reading slowly to understand stories and to avoid making mistakes and he likes sounding out words. He was also asked to explain what he considers as the worst part of reading. He replied that he does not like re-telling the stories that he reads from books. Close analysis of P.T. indicated that he values and gives more emphasis to accurate pronunciation while reading. He equates reading well to accurate pronunciation. In fact, he repeatedly mentioned that he usually used the “sounding out” approach to read. Although accuracy is a critical factor in the reading process, it does not guarantee that one will understand or comprehend the reading material. In addition, accuracy does not guarantee that the reader will learn from the information presented in the text. P.T. seems not to understand that the purpose of reading is to comprehend the text. He does seem to know the importance of understanding the text. Therefore, there is need for his tutors to make him understand that the critical role of reading is to comprehend the text. His tutors need to make this a major goal to be accomplished at the beginning of the 2014 Spring. The teachers will need to make him understand that, in order to learn to write stories, he has to learn to comprehend what he reads.

Apart from the book mentioned earlier, P.T. stated that he likes reading a book called “Three little Quacks gets haunted.” He also stated that he likes books and magazines with trucks because he finds the pictures to be “clean and nice.” He said that the last movie he had watched had monster trucks that were racing and crashing against each other. Also, he stated that the last book he had read had such monster trucks. He mentioned that his favorite television shows are Little Truck, the Bet Thomas and Big Truck. The explained further that the Little Truck portrays a truck with a red door and tires that have orange color in some parts.

P.T. was also asked to name his favorite subject in school. He replied that mathematics is the subject he likes most. When he was asked to give the reason, he said he likes mathematics because he is able to use his fingers to make calculations. He was also asked to name the games that he likes most. He mentioned that he likes racing together with friends, the freeze tag game and hide and seek. He was also asked to explain what he considers to be the importance of writing. He replied that the purpose of writing at school is to give work to the teacher. He was asked to name people he considers to be good writers. P.T. mentioned four of his classmates. When asked to give the reason why he believed they are good writers, P.T. replied that the four classmates are frequently asked by the teacher to read their work before other students in class.

Analysis

It is clear from the assessment results that P.T. understands that he has problems in reading and writing. However, he does not understand that one of the critical roles of reading is to comprehend the text. He believes that the purpose of reading is to be able to write. Despite this, T.T is ready to improve his reading skills and he believes that after learning how to read, he will also become a good writer. Further, the assessment results show that P.T. uses “sounding out strategy” while reading. He needs to learn how to apply language cueing systems (pragmatic, syntactic and semantic) in order to become a good reader.

QRI – 5 Assessments

QRI-5 (Qualitative Reading Inventory-5) is a tool used to asses the extent to which an individual is able to read and to comprehend text. It is also used to determine the impacts that inability to read and to comprehend words have on an individual. QRI-5 is one of the informal reading inventory (IRI) tools that have been utilized for a long time in assessing individuals’ reading levels (instructional, independent and frustration) and to collect diagnostic information. QRI-5 is designed to assess ability to listen and to read silently while comprehending the meanings of words. As well, the tool is used to asses the ability to communicate verbally what one has learned. The tool is designed to collect information from students enrolled at all levels, from kindergarten to high school level (Leslie & Cadwell, 2011).

QRI – 5 Word List

QRI-5 has a list of words that is given to a student and he is asked to pronounce them. The examiner notes down the words that are correctly identified immediately and those that are identified after a delay. The results of the assessment are recorded on a scoring sheet. Words that are identified without delay are recorded in Identified Automatically column (Leslie & Cadwell, 2011). On the other hand, those that are identified after a delay are recorded in another column named “Identified column.”

Table 2: The findings of the QRI – 5 Word List Assessment

Grade Level Total correct automatic Total correct identified Total number correct Percent correct Level

Second 0 0 0 0% Frustration

First 12 0 12 56% Frustration

Primer 15 0 15 71% Instructional

Pre-primer

2/3 20 0 20 96% Independent

Pre-Primer 1 18 0 18 100% Independent

Brief Description of Word List

The word list assessment was conducted on P.T. to determine his ability to identify and to recognize words. To avoid distraction, it was necessary to record data for each listing. The assessment process started with the second grade followed by the other levels. The examiner found that at the second grade, P.T spent a long time trying to identify and to give correct meaning to the word “morning.” This observation was recorded on the scoring sheet. P.T also pronounced the word “bear” as “bricte.” He also experienced difficulties in pronouncing many other words. At the premier level, P.T. was unable to pronounce the words animals, gain, great, want and children. He pronounced the word “great” as “grave.” However, he was able to pronounce four words that were on the list. At both the second grade and the premier levels, P.T. was not willing to continue pronouncing words down the list. He experienced problems in pronouncing words even after he was given time to review the list.

P.T. showed improvement at the pre-primer 2/3 level as he was able to complete the list of words. He was able to pronounce the words “people,” “some,” “just,” “were” and “doing.” He only experience difficulty in pronouncing the word “where.” P.T used “sounding out” strategy to read the words that he was able to identify. P.T showed much improvement at pre-primer 1 level, where he managed to pronounce all 17 on list.

Analysis

The assessment showed that P.T. still uses the “sounding out” strategy to read and to pronounce words. Despite the fact that P.T showed improvement at different levels, he still experiences difficulties in pronouncing multiple word syllables. As well, he has problems with diphthongs. Close assessment of P.T. showed that he guesses meanings of words by looking at the initial letters. His approach leads him to make many mistakes while reading and while pronouncing words.

QRI-5 Expository and Narrative Passages

The QRI-5 also contains passages that are both expository and narrative in nature. The passages are designed for students at different school levels. They contain concepts that are designed to gauge the prior knowledge of study subjects. Precisely, the passages are meant to measure the ability of the study subjects to apply prior knowledge in various ways.

The findings of Reading Comprehension of Expository/Narrative Passages

P.T was given both expository and narrative passages with different sections. Concept questions were provided to determine P.T.’s ability to understand the passages presented to him. He was also asked to retell what he had read in order to determine his ability to retain information. He was presented with various questions to gauge his level of comprehension.

Table 3: Results of Reading Comprehension of Expository/Narrative Passages

Passage Title Passage Level Total #No.of Miscues Total Accuracy Total Acceptability Reading Level Correct Implicit Comprehension Comprehension Overall Assessment Level

I can

(Narrative) Pre-Primer 1 5 0 0 Instructional 5 N/A Instructional Instructional

People at work (Expository) Pre-Primer 2 16 0 0 Frustration 3 3 Instructional Instructional

The assessment in this area started with a narrative passage, “I Can,” given at the pre-primer 1. The results of the study indicated that P.T. encountered difficulties in reading and comprehending the passage. He was then given concept questions to prepare him for what he was about to read. He was asked to read the stories of “The Quack” and “What Can I Get For My Toy.” In the latter, P.T was able to predict what he was about to read.

Table 4: Results for Silent Reading of Expository and Narrative Passages

Passage Title Passage Level Reading Level Correct Explicit Correct Implicit Level Overal Level Of Assessment

The New Kid 2nd Grade 2nd Grade 2 N/A 41% Frustration

The results of QRI-5 assessment showed that P.T. experienced problems in reading and comprehending the narrative and expository passages despite the fact that he was asked to read stories that are favorite to him. P.T. mentioned that he wanted to read the story of “The New Kid” for the silent reading assessment. The story was downloaded by the examiners from havefunteaching.com and was given to him to read. The examiners searched and downloaded comprehension questions from “Have Fun Teaching” Website. The site contains materials that can be used by teachers to augment their teaching materials in classrooms.

P.T. encountered difficulties in reading the story and turned to the teacher for assistance. However, the teacher asked him to continue trying and walked out to allow him to have privacy and confidence to read. After the teacher walked out, P.T started shouting words that he was experiencing difficulties in reading and those that he had not encountered before. After he finished reading, he was asked to give answers to five comprehension questions that were based on the story. He was asked to select one in four choices of answers in each comprehension question. The first question asked him to point out the two individuals who were friends at the beginning of the story. P.T. selected the choice that indicated “Jon and Steven.” The correct answer for the question was Jon and Adam. Another question asked P.T. to point out the people who were friends at the end of the story. He selected the correct choice which indicated that the Jon, Steven and Adam were friends at the end of the story. Further, T.T drew a picture that displayed two students, playground, tall building, sun and a tree. He was asked to give the names of the two students in the picture. He named them Aventhon and Jon. He was not sure where he got the name Aventhon but it is possible that he derived it be combining the word Steven and Jon.

Analysis

When reading, it was apparent that P.T. tends to pronounce words that he is not sure of. Initially, he based his responses on both the pictures and words that he encountered on a passage. During the silent reading, P.T. was able to recall more information when presented with stories with pictures than stories with plain words. This implies that P.T. needs to be presented with pictures in order for him to comprehend information well.

Retelling through drawing

Retelling

Apart from asking comprehension questions, the assessor can determine the level of comprehension by asking the respondent to retell the story that he/she has read. When using comprehension questions, assessment is done through assigning frustration, instructional and independent levels. On the other hand, the evaluation of the ability to retell a story is done using a scoring sheet that contains main ideas that are contained in the story (Leslie & Cadwell, 2011).

Table 5: The findings of Retelling Expository and Narrative Passages

PASSAGE TITLE PASSAGE LEVEL NUMBER OF IDEAS RECALLED TOTAL NUMBER OF IDEAS

I Can (containing pictures) Pre-primer 1(Narrative) 6 recalled (+1 implicit) 9

People at Work (containing pictures) Pre-primer 2 (Expository) 8 16

What can I Get for My Toy (without pictures) Level 2 (Narrative) 6 31

In the narrative story “I can”, P.T. was able to identify six out of 9 explicit facts. He was also able to identify one implicit fact. In the passage “People at Work”, he was able to identify various ways in which people can work. He mentioned job tasks such as assisting people carry staff, assisting people that get hurt and helping in carrying staff. The only observation that was related to the pictures is assisting in carrying staff. All the others were not explicit in the pictures. In the story “What Can I Get for My Toys?” P.T. noted that there were two boys and their mother. He identified correctly that one of the boys was in a red truck and wanted to trade it for toy. However, the names of the two boys were not clear.

Analysis

The assessment shows that P.T. encounters problems in retelling stories especially when there are no pictures to accompany stories. However, he understands short stories with pictures better and can remember many facts. He has problems in understanding and retelling long stories with or without pictures.

The findings of Listening Comprehension

Passage title Passage level Correct explicit Correct implicit Overall assessment Level

What Can I get for My Toy (QRI-5) 2 5 out of 9 2 Frustration

A Dozen Donuts (havefunteaching.com) 2 2 out of 6 N/A Frustration

The online resources were useful in designing comprehension questions. Comprehension questions were used to gauge the level of understanding of stories. P.T. was able to answer several comprehension questions correctly. In “What Can I Get for My Toy?”, he was able to answer more than half of comprehension questions correctly. He was able to determine male characters in pictures by looking at their toys. “A Dozen Donuts” was more complex. It describes a dozen unique doughnuts. P.T. was not able to give descriptions of individual doughnuts. He was also unable to identify the number of doughnuts that Chocolate had.

Analysis

In “What Can I Get for My Toy?”, P.T. was able to answer more than half of the comprehension questions correctly since the topic revolved around his favorite stories of trucks. He experienced difficulties in answering questions derived from “A Dozen Donuts” because the topic did not trigger interest and the story needed him to understand many different descriptions. P.T has ability to recall information and to answer questions correctly when a story contains descriptive pictures. When left to read alone, P.T. tries to comprehend stories through breaking them down in parts and trying to associate them with events that occur in reality. This process compounds his problems further since he has to take time to process and reprocess text. P.T. shows concentration when listening to stories but his ability to remember the stories is still low.

Writing Samples

As mentioned earlier, P.T. is highly interested in texts and pictures that deal with trucks. Thus, he was presented with picture with a truck to stimulate his understanding and writing.

The picture stimulated P.T.’s interest to write in a positive way. When he was writing, he made a spelling mistake by writing “can” as “can.” However, he quickly noted the mistake and corrected it.

Analysis

P.T. has ability to remember and to spell words that are used commonly, such as “that” and “I, can, a.” When he encounters new or difficult words, he applies phonetic spelling; he uses sounds to pronounce them. For instance, he pronounced the word “drive” as “thif.” By looking at the two words, it is difficult to establish any connection. Deeper assessment showed that P.T. was trying to pronounce the Chuukese word “thrife” in place if “drive.” This implies that P.T. tries to connect new and difficult words with the words that he has heard before. It makes sense given the fact that in Chuukese, “dr” is pronounced as “th.” Such problems were observed in many cases during the assessment.

Although P.T. relied more on phonetic spellings, he expressed interest in understanding how to spell some words correctly.

Analysis

P.T. understands that he needs to learn spelling in order to learn how to write. However, he experiences difficulties which lead him to rely more on phonetic spelling. This may explain the fact that he has difficulties in writing. This observation will need to be taken into account during the coming year in order to establish with strategies that can help P.T. to improve his spelling skills.

Recommendations

For the School:

Come up with a teaching strategy that makes use of both text and pictures in order to stimulate P.T.’s interest in reading. This move will also help to improve his ability to comprehend written text.

Use a teaching strategy that will help P.T. to recognize word patterns. The use of riming words can help to achieve this goal.

Establish ways of encouraging P.T. to read text repetitively without getting bored. Shared-reading is one of the recommendable strategies.

Establish ways of enhancing fluency in reading. This can be achieved through development of strategies that foster repetitive reading.

Parents:

The parents should provide P.T with reading materials that contain information that is interesting to him. They should then encourage him to read frequently and repetitively. Further, the parents should help him to read new and difficult words. They should strive to make him understand meanings of words.

The parents should aid in the development of a conducive reading environment at home. Further, they should use common physical features at home to teach P.T. The analysis shows that P.T. easily understands text and pictures that reflect things and issues that he encounters frequently.

The parents can develop a word list for P.T. to read frequently. By reading the same words repetitively, P.T. can develop interest and become a better reader. In addition, the list can be useful in determining presence of improvement.

The parents can provide P.T. with a journal and encourage him to write on it events that he encounters daily.

Literacy Center

The literacy center can support P.T. by developing a word wall with rimes. Words with similar sound patterns should be matched together. The words should be reviewed and sorted on frequent basis.

Ask P.T. to review what he learned or what was taught during the previous lesson, at the beginning of the lesson. This can help to improve his ability to retell and to recall.

Develop sentence strips from stories, rearrange them and ask P.T. to re-order them to make the original story

Establish the shared reading strategy and then encourage P.T. to read patterned, repetitive text.

Establish a method of improving reading and comprehension skills. This can be achieved through developing repetitive reading strategies

Develop reader’s theater activity program and implement it on P.T. This program can help to improve comprehension skills.

Develop strategies for application of context cues in learning. Apply the strategies in teaching P.T. to use context cues to identify words. This can help to improve comprehension of words and meanings.

All the recommendations listed will be taken into account during the Spring 2014 sessions. Efforts will be made to enhance improvement of P.T. in all areas identified. Therefore, the spring will be quite beneficial to P.T. Efforts will be made to work together with all stakeholders in order to achieve the intended benefits. The likelihood of achieving the goals is high given that P.T. has shown great interest in improving his reading and writing skills.