CASE STUDY 1: David David had just turned 10 years old and completed the fourth grade when his parents brought him to the Reading Center in June. During the parent interview, his parents reported that David’s reading problems had persisted through his school history. His parents said his physical development was normal except for an operation he had when he was an infant to correct a “cross-eyed” condition. Since David had begun school, his vision had been checked every year with the Snellen chart and appeared to be normal. David’s parents reported that he was a very happy, likeable boy. He enjoyed sports, such as running and swimming, but did not like sports like baseball which required motor skills such as catching balls. Before starting school, David had been enthusiastic about reading, but he had developed an aversion to it as he experienced failure. Now he avoided reading. When he was required to read a book, he selected easy ones with large print. When David’s cumulative school records were examined, they confirmed that he had experienced continuing problems in reading. However, he was more successful in other academic areas. In an interview with his fourth grade teacher, she described him as having a bad attitude toward reading and said he attempted to avoid it. She also said that at the end of the year, David was reading with the lowest group in the last half of a second grade reader, while the remainder of the class was on grade level. She said David had particular problems with oral reading, and he frequently lost place in the text. In an interview with David, he said he did not want to be at the Reading Center. When asked about reading, David seemed to understand that the purpose of reading is to gather information. He said he read outside of school, and that he only read things when they were assigned. He was quite reluctant to participate in the diagnosis, particularly in reading orally to the reading teacher, a great deal of time was spent convincing him to cooperate and to read the passages presented. Tests administered and the results are presented below: Informal Reading Inventory Word Recognition List Independent Level Primer Instructional Level Grade 1 Oral Passage Reading Independent Level Primer Instructional Level Grade 1 Silent Passage Reading Independent Level Grade 1 Instructional Level Grade 2 Listening Level Grade 5 David maintained adequate oral reading and comprehension scores from the preprimer through the second grade levels. His words recognition broke down at the third grade level. Consequently, he was unable to comprehend at that level. An analysis of his miscues at all levels of the IRI showed that he rarely tried to sound unknown words. However, he supplied words in the text that make sense contextually. David’s mother reported that David had always passed the hearing screening test that was administered at his school. However, he had been referred to an ophthalmologist after his last vision screening test. The ophthalmologist told David’s parents that his near point vision, far point vision, and color perception were all in the normal range, but that he had problems with depth perception and binocular vision at both the far point and near point ranges. David was reluctant to participate throughout the diagnosis, especially when asked to read longer text. Questions for Case Study 1: David Question 1 Considering both environmental and individual factors, which of these might be related to David’s reading problem? Substantiate your answer by citing evidence. Question 2 Does David have a reading disability? Substantiate your answer. Question 3 What seems to be David’s major area of reading disability? Substantiate your answer. Question 4 At what grade level do you think instruction should begin? Why? CASE STUDY 2: Mark Mark, aged 14, was in the eighth grade when he was referred to the school reading specialist by the school guidance counselor. She was concerned both about Mark’s reading and about the reports received from his classroom teacher. According to the cumulative school records, Mark’s progress had been normal until the fourth grade, when he started to fall behind. When the reading specialist interviewed Mark’s mother, his Mother reported that his physical and developmental histories were normal. When Mark was younger, both parents had spent much time with him and encouraged him to read. However, a number of changes in the family situation had occurred in the past two years which limited the amount of time the parents could devote to Mark. Mark’s mother had gone to work, and his father had accepted a job in a different city and was able to get home only occasionally. Mark’s teacher reported that he was popular in school, but he seemed to lack motivation for schoolwork. His classroom teacher said that assignments required the reading of entire chapters in the text. Since Mark rarely completed his assignments, he was having difficulty in the course. The teacher expressed the opinion that Mark lacked an adequate background for the course. In an interview, Mark said he disliked reading and thought it was too hard. He never read for pleasure and could not image why anyone would do so. His only area of interest was baseball. He said he was a good shortstop and said he followed professional baseball closely. He had memorized many facts and records and seemed to have a keen interest in the strategy behind the game. The results of tests administered are presented below: Informal Reading Inventory Word Recognition List Independent Level Grade 8 Instructional Level Grade 8 Oral Reading Passages Independent Level Grade 4 Instructional Level Grade 5 Silent Reading Passages Independent Level Grade 5 Instructional Level Grade 6 Listening Level Grade 5 Mark was able to read through the eighth grade passage. His word recognition was almost perfect through all levels, but he exhibited severe problems with comprehension. Although his comprehension of facts was adequate, his performance in all other areas of comprehension was poor Mark was asked to bring in his social studies textbook and show how he studied it. He began with the first page of the chapter and continued to laboriously read the rest of the chapter. He employed no study strategies. When questioned on the chapter, he remembered little of it and was unable to distinguish between important and unimportant information. When asked to reread a paragraph, he could not identify the main idea. He seemed to have little grasp of the concepts presented in the chapter. Although Mark cooperated with the reading specialist, he was unenthusiastic about the diagnosis. He seemed to be “going through the motions,” often watching the clock. Questions for Case Study 2: Mark Question 1 With which aspects of comprehension does Mark need help? Question 2 Which strategies would you use to help Mark with his comprehension abilities? Would these focus on narrative or expository text? Question 3 How would you plan to help Mark with his social studies course? Give suggestions for both the reading specialist and the content area teacher. Question 4 Which strategies would you use to help Mark with his comprehension of narrative text? Question 5 If you were Mark’s teacher what would you do different to help him in his reading?
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