The student I’m referring to is actually diagnosed DH but I don’t know where else to turn. I’ve been working with Lee for 2 years and have been able to make very little progress. He is a 13 1/2 year old boy in the 7th grade. He is a hard worker that attempts any task I put before him. All along I’ve been thinking that he is just a slow learner that will make slow progress but lately I’ve started thinking that possibly he has a severe reading disorder that I’m hoping could be remediated. I’ll share some of his traits with you and maybe someone could lead me in a direction to help remediate him.
*full scale IQ of 60
*Woodcock reading SS of 10
*relies mainly on picture cues when reading text
*does not use context clues at all
*site word vocabulary of approximately 5 words consistently
*extremely limited memory skills
*difficulty with letter to sound correspondence
* when sounding out CVC words only remembers last sound (ex. if sounding out the word “cat” might guess something like “time”. It’s the first word that comes to his mind that begins with the last letter of the word he was sounding out.)
*words written are not recognizeable. (ex. the word “house” might be “fsin”)
These learning characteristics also go over into math.
*only consistently recogizes numerals up to 20. Anything from 20-100 is only attempted correctly about 50% of the time.
*when he gets them right he reads 2 digit numerals backwards, so 24 is read 42.
Needless to say he reads and does math at the preK to early 1st grade level. So at this point he is considered a non-reader.
Sorry this went on and on but I’m really concerned about him. His IEP is due and I want to take a more aggressive approach to his instructions but am at a loss as to what direction to take. I am going to make attempts to get a reading specialist in our district to evaluate him but I sure would like some input in the meantime.
Thanks,
Laura
Re: Severe reading discrepencies
A FS IQ of 60 is in the mildly mentally retarded range, not a slow learner. Some individuals with MR can have a functonal sight word vocabulary and maybe more, but it should be in the context of vocational training and community living.
Re: Severe reading discrepencies
I have used the Edmark functional word series to teach those high frequency functional words. This program uses repetition and it has software that goes with it. This program should be used with a sound community based program so that the words are reinforced in the natural setting. Here is the link to the Edmark site.
http://www.riverdeep.net/products/special_needs/fws.jhtml
With a Full Scale IQ that is that low- 60 is very limited- his learning rate IS going to be extraordinarily slow and he will require huge amounts of repetition of things for them to become solid. This is going to place some very real limits on how much he can learn. Specific goals are going to depend largely on what folks have been doing with him- but my inclination- especially with a 13/14 yr old- is to work on functional/prevocational skills- especially in reading and math. If he has had adaptive behavior assessment done then look at that information and build his IEP from there. Think about money, measurement and time- and keep working on basic reading skills but also think about the words he will need to function in his community- whatever that may be- and teach those as high frequency words. This is not an LD and cannot be programmed that way- it would be unfair to him.
Robin