Reference no: EM133350574

Lily

Lily is an 8-year-old second-grader. She was adopted from China when she was a baby. Lily has been wearing hearing aids since the adoption. She received a cochlear implant a month before her 3rd birthday. Her hearing loss is profound without her hearing aid and cochlear implant. With her hearing aid, her hearing loss is moderate to severe in her left ear. With her cochlear implant, she has a 20 dB hearing loss, which is considered normal hearing, although she is not able to access all sounds. Her primary mode of communication is speech, but she also uses sign, speech reading, and context clues to fill in the blanks of what she misses.

Lily attended the state school for children who are deaf or blind for preschool. Since kindergarten she has attended her neighborhood school, participating fully in general education, with full-time services from an interpreter/tutor who also provides additional instruction in vocabulary for 20 minutes two times a week. Lily receives consultative services from an itinerant teacher of students who are deaf or hard of hearing and also receives speech-language therapy three times a week for 30 minutes. Two of those sessions focus on speech goals and one is dedicated to language goals. The audiologist provides auditory training once a week for 30 minutes. Finally, the special education resource teacher also provides math help twice a week for 15 minutes.

Lily is above grade level in reading and at grade level in math; uses her listening skills, speech reading, and interpreter to understand what is happening in the classroom; and enjoys school and has many friends. If she doesn't understand something, she asks for clarification. Vocabulary, especially words with multiple meanings (e.g., run, power) and figurative language (e.g., "catch you later"), is an area of difficulty for Lily.

Zachary

Zachary is a seventh-grade student at Morehead Middle School. He has a moderate hearing loss as a result of an illness he contracted at the age of 18 months. He is also identified as having an intellectual disability. Zachary spends each morning in his special education classroom, where Mr. Reynolds, his special education teacher, helps him and his classmates with their reading, language arts, and math skills. In the afternoon, Zachary participates in the science class with his peers without disabilities, accompanied by a teaching assistant who supports the science teacher by assisting Zachary and three other students with disabilities in the class. Zachary also participates with his classmates in other classes, such as occupational exploration. Zachary communicates using some signs, some spoken words, and some gestures. His individualized education program (IEP) goals for this year include not only reading and math goals but also asking for assistance before becoming frustrated as well as participating appropriately in small-group activities with his peers. Mr. Reynolds is concerned about Zachary. Twice recently, the science teacher asked the assistant to escort Zachary from the room after he became very upset when he did not understand the teacher's directions. Mr. Reynolds is planning to meet with the teacher and the school psychologist after school tomorrow to discuss exactly what happened and then to consider whether Zachary might benefit from a behavior intervention plan.

Brian

Brian is a senior in high school, and he can best be described as a young man on a mission. He has already been admitted to a state university, where he plans to major in biology so that he can pursue a medical degree. He hopes to have a career as a researcher, possibly in a teaching hospital. He considers his greatest challenge to be writing; he relies heavily on his mom to edit his written assignments, and he has already met with staff members at the university writing center. Brian's special education teacher, general education teachers, and parents have no doubt he will achieve his career goal. Brian's moderate bilateral hearing loss probably has a genetic component; he has several relatives who have moderate to profound hearing loss. Perhaps because of this fact and because his aunt is very active in a local Deaf group while his parents are both hearing but proficient in American Sign Language, Brian seems to live comfortably in both the hearing and Deaf communities. He has friends who are Deaf and friends who hear; he attends Deaf events, but he also enjoys all the typical social activities that are part of being in high school. Brian has a sign language interpreter at school, but that is not a perfect solution. In some classes, he could probably succeed by speech reading and using an amplification system but, in his advanced math and sciences classes, he struggles to understand his teachers and sometimes cannot keep up with the lecture and discussions, even when notes are provided to him. But with his usual optimism, Brian explains he is glad he learned this in high school so that he can ask for appropriate supports when he gets to college.

Question 1: Which student, in your opinion, is experiencing the most success with their interventions? Support your response.

Question 2. Zachary seems to be having success in all of his classes except science (frustrated when he cannot understand his teacher and is removed from the room). Do you feel he may need a behavioral intervention as suggested or is there another strategy that may need to be looked into?

Question 3. Brian wants to be a doctor (researcher). Given the description of his success and challenges in school, do you think he will be able to achieve his goal? What supports may he need in college to be successful (given college is much more challenging and typically offers less specific support for disabilities i.e. no IEP)