Running head: CASE STUDY 1

Assignment 2:

Case Study

Sukyung Cho (260679983)

EDEE-355-003

Christina Delaney

November 13, 2017

 Case Study 2

SECTION 1:
There is a student named Tilly (false name). He is currently in a Core English
kindergarten class, and he is 5 years old. He is one of the coded students because he has autism
spectrum disorder (ASD). There are three group tables, and Tilly sits with two other coded
students at one of the tables. A child care worker sits with the coded students in order to help the
students with their tasks. Since he sits with the child care worker, Tilly gets help when needed.
However, the child care worker is in charge of another student with severe ASD.
In the beginning of the school year, it was very hard to have him speak. When my
cooperating teacher (CT) asked him a question, he did not respond. However, when my CT
asked the student to repeat after her, she did. I assumed that he needed help with strengthening
his social skills. On the first week, I said good morning to everyone. When I waved and said,
Good morning Tilly, he did not respond as oppose to his other peers who waved back and said
Good morning Miss Sukyung. He did not respond to any simple questions such as Do you
need help? and How are you? Tilly also had some difficulty following the class rules which I
consider as his behavioral problems. On October 5, 2017, Tilly threw himself on the ground
during play time because he wanted play with all the floor toys by himself. I told him that the
class toys belong to everyone in the classroom, and he turned his back on me. This happened
frequently during play time; when he does not get what he wants, he would feel angry and/or cry.
He got a time-out every time he neglected the class rules. Rather than using words, he expressed
his opinions with his emotions.
On the other hand, he excels in learning tasks that are given. For example, I gave
everyone a math worksheet where they have to fill in blanks with numbers in order. Most
students had trouble because the numbers went up to 30. They had to look at the calendar to look
at the numbers. Tilly finished his worksheet in less than 5 minutes. Another proof that he has no
academic problem is learning the alphabets. Although he does not like to participate in
answering questions, he will answer correctly when I ask him about the sound of a letter. For
instance, I asked Tilly, Tilly! What sound does the letter F make? He made the sound without
thinking. Furthermore, he remembers strategies that the teacher gives to facilitate his tasks. For
instance, I reminded him that the first letter of his name is in capital and the rest is in lowercase. I
gave him a capital T and lowercase letter squares to help him look and practice writing his name
properly. Since then, he has been using the letters I gave to write his name. Here is an example
of math worksheets he has done.
 Case Study 3

There is no sign of erasing numbers unlike his peers who had difficult time writing numbers after
20.

Tilly has good large motor skills. When he is excited or over stimulated, he flaps his
hands and jump up and down. His small motor skills are good and emerging. He can use his
scissors properly, but he cannot cut through the cutting line. His color recognition is great.
However, he cannot color accordingly to the colors of real-life objects. For instance, he would
use blue or purple when coloring human skin on a coloring page. There is no medical
information that he is color blind. Nevertheless, if I remind students that some objects have
certain colors, he would color properly.
At the beginning of the school year, he did not make any interaction with his peers. One
day during daily reading time, students share and exchange books. When a student asked Tilly,
Hey, can I read your book after? He did not respond. He loves to play at the train station
during play time. When his peer asked him to play with Tilly, he did not respond. He got angry
when his peer started playing at the train station. From these events, I learned that he had lack of
social skills and peer relationships. Mr. J, the resource teacher, has told me that Tilly was not
responsive to his questions at the beginning. Tilly seemed lost in the reading corner when other
students were socializing.
Throughout the case study, it was difficult to find his likes and dislikes because he does
not express what he wants to do. However, I noticed he likes playing and working alone. I saw
from Tilly trying to push away students who want to play with him. He likes to go on the
computer to play educational games. Tilly likes something that he can play. Tilly and other
students work with the resource teacher every week. Every time the resource teacher enters the
classroom, Tilly smiles and greets Mr. J. He participates in board games that Mr. J brings into
the classroom. I noticed that Tilly gets the most motivation when the resource teacher is in the
classroom. The resource teacher comes two hours per week; one hour in the afternoon on
Tuesdays and one hour in the morning on Thursdays. Mr. J has mentioned that he needs to work
on social skills with Tilly.
So far, Tilly is improving according to my plan. However, he still does not socialize with
his friends without intervening. How can I plan in a way that the student can naturally interact
with his peers? Also, will he be able to make friends after kindergarten?

SECTION 2:
There are two areas that need interventions: social and behavioral. I think Tilly needs to
work on socializing because he needs to start social interactions with the teachers and his peers.
According to Owen-DeSchryver et al. (2004), people with ASD often experience deficit in
communications. As mentioned above, the resource teacher emphasizes on social interactions
when working with Tilly due to his lack of response. On October 31st, Tilly was frowning in the
morning. I tried to make my questions as specific as possible for kindergarten students. I asked,
Do you have to go to the bathroom? Do you have to eat your snack? Did someone do something
mean to you? He was not responsive. I assumed he was frowning because he did not dress up
for the day which was Halloween. Nevertheless, I believe that teachers should not make
assumptions about what is inside a students head. This type of event happens at least once a day.
He needs support in social interactions in order to fully experience learning and get help
whenever he needs. He rarely involves in interactions with his peers. As mentioned above, he
 Case Study 4

does not respond to his peers. He understands class materials and he excels in completing tasks.
Tilly can use this strength to develop his social interactions. One strategy could be peer tutor.
Second area that needs intervention is behavioral. During my observation week (week 1&
2), Tilly often refused to play with his peers. When he was playing at the train station, a student
unintentionally took the train Tilly was playing with. Tilly shouted No! and stood there
because he did not know what to do in order to get the toy back. Second evidence is getting
aggravated. He gets angry when he is constantly asked to do work. During math class, everyone
was asked to do simple tasks such as coloring 5 goldfish and cutting them. After, they had to
trace the number written on each goldfish. Tilly missed a step so I gently told him, Great you
followed the first step, but what were you supposed to do next? He realized he was doing
something wrong and he got upset and turned his back; he refused to continue working. This
type of behavioral problems prevents Tilly from completing his tasks, thus losing all of the
potential opportunities to learn.
According to Criss et al. (2002), having positive peer relationships can aide students with
self- esteem, hence students can be self-motivated. Criss et al. (2002) also found that there was a
positive relationship between peer acceptance and academic competence (p.1221). In order to
have positive peer relationships, Tilly needs to develop positive social skills (Unfortunately,
Tilly needs improvement in his social interactions. For this reason, I will focus on his
communication skills. My tern objective is for Tilly to build positive peer relationships with his
classmates. This objective is achievable because I can practice full-sentence interactions with
Tilly and it will reinforce him to talk to his peers in sentences. My second goal is to exhibit
appropriate behaviors. When Tilly gets upset, he ignores the class rules. For instance, I had to
remind him couple of times to walk in the hallway. During play time, I put 2 students per play
station and 3 people is the limit. When Tilly was told that there was no more space, he stood
there pouting. I need Tilly to recognize and acknowledge the class rules.

SECTION 3:
My first goal that was mentioned above is to increase social communication skills. This
goal is related to kindergarten competency 4 which is to communicate orally. As Tilly works
towards the goal, he will build positive peer relationships in order to practice social interaction
skills. Having positive peer relationships include initiating conversations, use full sentences
when speaking and being able to play with his peers during play time. (see IEP worksheet)
In order to achieve the objective, here is a list of the strategies I will use:
1) Practice greeting with Tilly. The teacher and the child care worker should say good
morning, good bye, how are you? And other proper greetings to teach Tilly how to
start conversations. As soon as he comes into the classroom, I will say Good
morning, Tilly and track whether he greets back. If he greets back properly without
any hint, then he successfully obtained the strategy.
2) By using his advanced learning, I will invite Tilly to help other students who need
help in their daily tasks. The tasks must be simple: Playing bingo, cutting papers, etc.
I will ask Tilly to peer tutor someone twice per week. I am going to measure the time
for how long Tilly helps his peers. 5 minutes is a sufficient amount of time to help.
This strategy involves collaboration between
3) Rather than using short words to ask questions, I will have him make the words into
full sentences. For instance, I will have him say Can I go to the bathroom? instead
of bathroom. Once he fully learns to make full sentences, he will eventually stop
 Case Study 5

using only word to ask a question. Every day, I am going to record how many full-
sentence questions he asks.
4) During play time, I will have students rotate the play stations every 15 minutes. Each
station will have two students. Tilly has to stay with his peer for 15 minutes. He has
to share his toys without a tantrum. His peer is expected to behave appropriately at
the play station in order to use this strategy. Every day, I will track whether he can
stay for 15 minutes per station.

The second objective of the goal is to exhibit appropriate behaviors. This goal is related
to competency 3; to interact harmoniously with others. The term objective is to follow
the classroom rules.
In order to achieve this objective, here is a list of the strategies I will use:
1) I will provide direct instruction with visual words and gestures. For instance, I will
ask them to sit nicely with their legs crossed, and I will model the posture. This
strategy will be handled by someone who gives the instructions, hence the homeroom
teacher. This strategy will be measured by answering, Does he follow the instruction
without getting annoyed or moving around? and How long can he stay on task? I
will count the minutes.
2) I will explain why when something is done against the class rules. This strategy will
be handled by the homeroom teacher and the resource teacher. I will measure this
strategy by asking myself, Does he repeat the same misbehavior after being told?
(yes/no) and How many times does he have to be reminded to respect the rules?

Another term objective of the second goal is to stay on task.

In order to achieve this objective, here is a list of the strategies I will use:
1) I will give him a time-out if he does not stay on task after three warnings. The homeroom
teacher and the child care worker will give Tilly a time-out every time he surpasses 3
warnings. This strategy is often effective because he goes back to his task after the time-
out. I will count how many times he has to get time-outs per day. I will measure how
many warnings he gets. When he gets a time-out, I will measure time until he is ready to
get back on his task.
 Case Study 6

References

Criss, M. M., Pettit, G. S., Bates, J. E., Dodge, K. A., & Lapp, A. L. (2002). Family Adversity,

Positive Peer Relationships, and Children's Externalizing Behavior: A Longitudinal

Perspective on Risk and Resilience. Child Development, 73(4), 1220-1237.

doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00468

Owen-DeSchryver, J. S., Carr, E. G., Cale, S. I., & Blakeley-Smith, A. (2008). Promoting

Social Interactions Between Students With Autism Spectrum Disorders and Their Peers

in Inclusive School Settings. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental

Disabilities, 23(1), 15-28. doi:10.1177/1088357608314370