Literacy Behaviours of the Learner Who Suffers from Cerebral Palsy - Case Study Example

Running Head: ASSIGNMENT 2: CASE STUDY OF A LEARNER CASE STUDY OF A LEARNER Name Your course Your instructor Institution Date of submission Introduction This is a report on a case study of a boy aged 6 years in which a comprehensive assessment of literacy areas has been done and described. Literacy in the Australian curricula is attained when learners acquire the skills, knowledge and dispositions needed to use and interpret language with confidence for communication and learning within and without the school and for them to take part in society in an effective manner (Hill 2010). Learners are involved in reading, listening to, speaking, viewing, writing and developing print, visual, oral as well as digital texts. Literacy also involves the use and modification of language in different contexts and for various purposes. In this report the learner will be called Joe although this is not his true name. Joe has been chosen for this case study because of his unique literacy problems. Such problems have been found to be totally different from what the other children exhibit. Learner profile Joe Bloggs is six years old and he suffers from cerebral palsy. He stays with his family at home and goes to Australia Primary School where he is in his first year. For the first time Joe was assessed in term 1 of 2011. Personally when I interacted with Joe, I found him to be a generally good boy with a desire to learn in spite of his insurmountable literacy problems.At the time Joe’s assessment, his parents were concerned with difficulties in his expressive language, fluency and articulation problems. Because of these problems Joe’s parents think his desire for school has dropped drastically. They have realized that he has become shy and dreads going to school to meet the teachers who he thinks are forcing him to do things he cannot do. After Joe had been assessed on these areas, intervention and strategies were provided for him. Recommendations were therefore made on his skills in comprehension. As the year progressed his teacher showed concerns about his literacy and comprehension. In the year 2011, Joe’s teacher provide literacy support for him, he also had speech pathology support for his fluency, language skills especially receptive language and speech sound production (Joe 2011). Literacy behaviours of the learner and summary of assessment results Language skills The Bureau auditory comprehension test and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals 4th Ed (CELF 4) were used in assessing the language skills of Joe. Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF 4) This is used to assess the language ability of the student based on receptive and expressive skills. Joe went through the 4 main language subtests and other extra subtests to expose his difficult areas. Overall, the boy’s performance was in the range of moderate difficulties where he achieved a core language score of 76. He had a percentile rank 5. The average score falls between 86 and 114 while the average range lies between 16 and 85. According to Carrow-Woolfolk (1999), the auditory comprehension language test is individually administered and it needs a pointing device only. It has 3 subtests thus: morphemes, grammatical, vocabulary and elaborated sentences and phrases. The Bureau Auditory Comprehension Test (BACT) Joe’s receptive language skills were further assessed using the BACT. Receptive language is the ability of a person to comprehend and process other people’s language. The test was used to investigate Joe’s listening ability and his that of following instructions with various complexity and lengths. Joe scored 22.8 indicating that his level of performance was that of 5 year old student. Complex and long questions gave him problems (Joe 2011) Concepts & Following Directions (Age Equivalent 5:3 years) The test is an assessment of the ability of the student to interpret more complex and lengthy spoken directions. Joe had problems with ordinal terms like first, second, third and fourth, exclusion terms like neither-nor, but one, preposition terms and temporal terms. Students are expected to listen to directions and accordingly point to pictures. Joe had difficulties in following directions, teacher’s instructions and remembering what is to be done for home work. According to Hill (2010) the test for concepts and following directions should be done constantly to ensure that the child masters the art of taking in and following instructions. Word structure (Age Equivalent 5:0 years) This test measures the ability of the student to use various forms of words in a grammatical way. Joe could not use auxiliaries (are) well when they precede an “ing” word. He also had problems using objective pronouns ‘us’ and ‘ours’, comparatives and superlatives ‘ faster-fastest, better – best, subjective pronouns and irregular past tense. In class he showed difficulties in understanding grammar, expressing meaning and reading and spelling (Joe 2011). Formulated sentences (age equivalent 5:9 years) This test was used to measure Joe’s ability to complete sentences and correct their grammar and meaning. Joe was expected to use a word given to him to describe a certain picture. Joe used incomplete sentences or grammatically wrong sentences. Joe had problems in verbal and written expression, story telling and editing his work (Joe 2011). Recalling sentences (Age equivalent 5:0 years) The test is used to assess the ability of the student to remember longer sentences that are more complex. Joe listened to a sentence being read and he was expected to repeat the sentence verbatim. For complex and longer sentences Joe either simplified or omitted sentence parts hence altering its meaning. Joe had trouble in working memory, writing dictated notes or those on the blackboard (Joe 2011).Simister (2007) observes that is helps a lot to have bright pictures behind a sentence or word. He says the words or sentences taught in this manner awaken pictures in the mind hence a higher possibility of recalling these sentences. Word classes-receptive and expressive (age equivalent 5:9 years) The test checks the ability of the student to comprehend relationships between semantically related words. The student is shown 3 pictures and is supposed to choose 2 that belong together. Word class expressive tests the ability of the student to explain or express relationships between semantically related words by class features. The child is expected to say why the 2 pictures chosen belong together. Joe selected those items belonging together looking at their features instead of the functional class. He had problems with understanding relationships between some objects, expressing relationships using language, retrieving words and using and understanding antonyms and synonyms (Joe 2011).In 2011, Whitman and DeWitt found that children use the words they hear to make sense of those they see in print. They therefore emphasize the need for hearing since it helps the child to understand the relationships between things that are written down. Sentence structure (Age Equivalent 5:0 years) It examines the ability of the child in interpreting long and complex spoken sentences. When a sentence is read to him, he has to choose a picture from 3 or 4 pictures that represent what the sentence means. Children must understand sentence terminology and how the terms function to give the sentence a meaning. Joe displayed difficulties handling complex sentences with modifications like object description for example ‘third or ‘spotted’, subordinate clauses, some locational phrases and infinities like to go and to cook. In class Joe had difficulties understanding instructions or sentences, obtaining information from a story and describing events (Joe 2011). Kail (2003) notes that allowing the child to read can help improve the overall language skills in the child especially sentence structure. It is therefore important for Joe to be allowed to read so that he can understand sentence structure. Strategies to develop literacy in the learner The task of developing literacy in Joe is a hard one and it requires well calculated strategies that are effective enough to achieve the set out goal. In this task it is important to use short instructions instead of longer ones that are rather complex. Information should be given in short structured chunks. A time delay should be allowed so that Joe can absorb the information given to him. Key points should be emphasized by use of a high voice volume and variation in pitch or intonation. In order to get Joe’s attention he needs to be given a physical and verbal cue before giving the instructions. Such may include touching him on the shoulder and making eye contact. Ask Joe to repeat back the crucial parts of instruction so that he can understand. He should also be asked to paraphrase back or say what he needs to do (Anonymous 2011). The physical environment should be structured to decrease distractions. Put Joe near the front of the classroom because this makes it easier to monitor his attention and levels of understanding. Joe also needs a quiet environment that is free from distractions for his home activities. Provide one-to-one instruction wherever possible, particularly when new tasks are introduced (Chohen and Cowen 2011). Use visual cues such as gesture, pictures wherever possible to facilitate understanding. Prompting and encouragement may be required when attempting new tasks. Encourage Joe to ask for help when he does not understand. Highlight important parts on work sheets with a highlighter or coloured dot. Keep workspaces clear of clutter, with a clear place for items in order to decrease distractions. Write a short timetable on the board to alert Joe to the routine and any possible changes to it. If he’s aware of what to expect at a general level, he may be able to better pay attention to more specific instructions (Ross, Downs 2004). During the holidays it is important to focus on the ideas below in order to help Joe gain some thing. For Joe to produce the “I” sound in those words with I blends such as glue, black, plant, and slow pictures should be used. The words are listed in the appendix section. Play games such ladders and snakes or anything that Joe likes and have him say the word before each turn, play “go fish” or “memory” (Click, Parker 2011). Some ways to help Joe are: Telling him to “say the /l/ in that word” or “what is your special sound?” Telling him how to produce /l/ Bring the tip of the tongue up to the roof of the mouth Make sure the lips are not rounded Drop the tongue down again Breaking up the word and then saying it as a whole for example “Say /gl/ no say /glue/”or “say /loo/ now say /gloo/”. Model the word and get Joe to repeat it. Once Joe is achieving 80% accuracy move onto using the word in short phrases for example “I have blue”, “do you have blue?” Then move onto sentences (Chohen and Cowen 2011). For Joe to demonstrate age appropriate listening and reasoning skills choose books to read with Joe or get Joe to choose. Ask him questions from levels iii and IV of the model. The questions as well as the simplification cues that will assist Joe in answering the questions have been provided. For Joe to demonstrate understanding of prepositions (beside, between, below) and ordinal terms give Joe instructions (for example things to do around the house, packing away, craft activities). Get him to give you instructions. Now you can make it into a game (Anonymous 2011).It is recommended that focus should be placed on Joe’s comprehension and reasoning or problem solving skills. In the year 2012, focus is to be placed on literacy skills. Joe also needs more assessment to be done on him in 2012 with the most appropriate strategies being provided in the same year. The assessments should be done to determine his current level of literacy skills (Anonymous 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, the report is about a case study carried out on a 6 year old boy called Joe. He has cerebral palsy and this has affected his learning causing literacy problems. Literacy in Australia is achieved through the acquisition of skills and knowledge that students need for communication in and out of the school. Various tests were done on Joe to determine his levels of literacy. These tests included those on language skills, concepts and following instructions, word structure, formulated sentences, recalling sentences and sentence structure. The report also features the strategies needed to help the learner acquire literacy. Appendix References Anonymous (2011) Simple strategies to facilitate language in the class room; Comprehension understanding Chohen V. and Cowen J. (2011). A balanced Literacy Approach (chapter 3). Literacy for children in informal age: teaching reading, writing and thinking. Belmont, Clalif.: Wadsworth Cengage. Second edition. Click, M. P., Parker J. (2011). Caring for school age children. Cengage Learning. Derewiank B. (1990). A functional approach to language. Exploring how text work. Rozelle, NWS: Primary English Teaching Association. Hill S. (2010). Developing early literacy: Assessment and Teaching (Chapter one), Prahan, Vic,: Eleanor Curtain. Joe (2011) The Clinical Evaluation of Language; Fundamentals Explanation of Subtests Kail V.R (2003). Advances in Child Development and behavior. Elsevier. Ross J. R., Downs M. P. (2004), Auditory disorders in school children: The Law, Identification, Remediation. Thieme. Simister C.J (2007). How to teach Thinking and Learning Skills: A practical programme for the whole school. Sage publication. Whitman, T., DeWitt, N. (2011). Key learning skills for children with Autism Spectrum disorders: A blue print. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Read More