Reference no: EM133493357

Assignment: Case Study Analysis

Now read through the case Study scenario and provide feedback on the questions.

Kim was eleven years old, and she had just completed the sixth grade, when she was brought to the Reading Center. She was referred by her sixth grade teacher, who was concerned about both her poor reading performance and her classroom adjustment.

According to her school reports, Kim was reading at the fourth grade level. Our initial testing at theReading Center also indicated that her reading was about fourth grade level.

Kim's mother came to the interview session, but her father was unable to attend. During the interview, Kim's mother stated that, because of Kim's father's work in the building construction business, the family had lived in four different cities since Kim's birth. As a result, Kim went to one school for grades one and two, another school for grade 3, and transferred to her present school in the fourth grade.

According to her mother, Kim's physical development seemed normal, although she had always been a rather shy child. Kim's mother thought that she withdrew even more after her sister's departure from the household. In fact, during the last year, Kim seemed to have lost the few friends she'd had. Her mother noted that Kim had not received any invitations to parties given by her classmates.

Kim's cumulative school records showed that she entered first grade at the age of 5 years, 9 months. The first school district Kim attended did not provide a public kindergarten. Before she entered school, Kim was given a readiness test. Because of her age and her poor performance on the test, the teachers advised Kim's parents to wait a year before enrolling her in school. However, her parents decided that it was best for the family to have Kim begin school immediately. Reading problems were noted continuously from the time that Kim entered school. Problems in other academic subjects became apparent in the fourth grade.

The interview with Kim's mother and the examination of school records showed that each of the three schools Kim had attended used a different approach to teaching reading. Kim's first school, in which she was in first grade, had used a sight word approach. The second school, where she was in grades 2 and 3, used a synthetic phonics approach. Her present school uses a linguistic, or analytic, phonics approach. Kim's mother thought Kim had passed the reading test because the teacher used a screening test for reading.

In interviews with Kim's teachers, she was described as "lazy" and they said that Kim "did not try hard enough." The only positive comments were made by her music teacher.

The Reading Clinic teacher who interviewed Kim said Kim was extremely shy. It was difficult for her to discuss her reading problems. Also, she refused to read orally. During an informal conversation, Kim described school as "terrible." She expressed a strong desire to have more friends and she described herself as "dumb."

Kim was very enthusiastic about playing the piano. She had been taking lessons in school for two years, and she was making excellent progress.

Questions for Case Study: Provide detailed responses.

• Question I: What evidence do you find that environmental factors or individual factors could be associated with Kim's reading problems?

• Question II: What suggestions could you make for ways that Kim's parents could help her with reading?

• Question III: Does Kim have any interests that could be used to lead into a reading program? How could these interests be used?