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Disability Case Study

Gwyneth M. Hudson
Department of Education, Geneva College
EDU370: Survey of Disabilities
Mrs. Emily E. Maddox
October 25, 2022
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Description of Child

Charlie Smith is a fourteen-year-old boy currently attending eighth grade at Beaver Falls

Middle School. While, upon first glance, he might seem like any other student his age, Charlie

struggles in school more than some due to a diagnosis of ADHD, as well as to specific learning

disabilities in reading comprehension and dyslexia. It was a privilege to observe him for this case

study and understand more about the ways disabilities impact a student’s educational experience.

Though his disabilities do not affect Charlie’s social functioning in any major ways, they

do rather significantly affect his academic experience. He is placed in what the school’s learning

support teacher informed me is known as itinerant learning support, the main characteristic of

which placement is that it allows students to be in the general education classroom for more than

eighty percent of the day. Thus, Charlie spends the majority of the day with his non-disabled

peers in the general education classroom, but, due to the nature of his disability and the content

areas it affects, he goes to the learning support classroom for pull-out reading and math.

In addition to Charlie’s pull-out classes, he is entitled, according to his IEP, to special

services in the general education classroom. Some examples of aids he currently receives include

adapted assignments and tests characterized by the removal of an option on multiple choice

questions, the addition of word banks, or simply fewer questions on the whole, together with

extended time to complete these assignments and tests. When it comes to local standardized

assessments, Charlie qualifies to receive accommodations, such as having directions read aloud

to him, being allotted extended time for testing, being afforded the option to do small group

testing in a separate room, having the learning support teacher administer the test, allowing for

multiple test sessions and frequent breaks, and being provided a multiplication sheet, calculator,

and formula sheet for math portions of assessments. Thus, he is in a well-supported environment.
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Profile of Child

Despite difficulties that Charlie faces in his education, it does not go unnoticed by his

teachers nor an observer like myself that he possesses some definite strengths. One of the first

that stands out about him is his natural leadership abilities. As I interviewed Charlie’s learning

support teacher, he spoke to me about Charlie’s ability to step up and get other students to

engage in the classroom. For example, he told me that sometimes when they are doing an activity

and his peers are simply not participating or talking and being distracted, Charlie will actually be

the one, rather than the teacher himself, to speak up and encourage the students to attend to the

task at hand. I believe the learning support teacher because I witnessed Charlie’s natural leading

abilities myself as I watched him interact with his teachers and his classmates over the course of

a few days. Even just his own conscious decision to pay attention a lot of the time inspires the

students around him to do the same; thus, he leads by example. Not only that, but he is very

encouraging to those around him. For instance, one day in the pull-out reading class, the students

were playing a game to practice their vocabulary words and build reading comprehension

surrounding a book they had recently read. The teams would bounce back and forth taking turns

describing what a word meant or what had happened in the story. Even when the other team said

something that was good, Charlie would affirm what they said by interjecting with something

like, “That’s right,” or simply a “good job.” It was great to see his confidence spilling over as he

deliberately encouraged those around him, a quality which I think characterizes a true leader.

Charlie not only encourages and leads those around him, but another strength he

possesses is helpfulness. He is always ready to lend a hand to those around him, whether

academically or otherwise. One instance in which I observed this trait was when the students

were watching a video in science class and had been given a question sheet to fill out as they
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followed along. On at least one or two occasions, Charlie turned around to help the student

behind him, who had clearly missed an answer. Charlie himself needed a neighbor to help him

with an answer once or twice. Another time, one of his classmates walked into first period late

while the class was playing a game, and Charlie kindly assisted in directing him to a good place

to sit. While he does not have to be so helpful, he is because he understands the value of

someone who is willing to help and is then himself excited to extend the same service to others.

One final strength worth mentioning about Charlie is his real-world knowledge. The

learning support teacher informed me during our interview that Charlie is one of those students

who is older than his age would suggest. Having two older brothers means he learns about some

things that he should not know yet. However, he is also quite knowledgeable about other hobbies

and interests, such as fishing. When I went with him to fishing club, he engaged in conversation

with the teacher like a little adult, talking about what kind of weather makes good fishing

conditions, what size of fish constitutes a nice catch, what bait and style of fishing is best for

bringing home a big one, etc. It was neat to see him so much in his element. His ability to

understand a real-world topic like this fully and be eager to learn more about how to do it well

also translates into his academic work in that he can talk about wars and real-world things with

his teachers better than some of his classmates surely can. Thus, he has a natural inclination to go

deeper into topics than the material itself would even necessarily facilitate.

Notwithstanding Charlie’s strengths in many areas, such as his natural leadership skills,

his innate helpfulness, and his real-world knowledge that allows him to dig deeper into eighth

grade topics than other students might be able to, he is not without weaknesses and areas where

growth is needed. One of the most painfully apparent to me as I observed was that of his

propensity to be distracted. While Charlie has the ability to dig deep into the subject matter at
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hand when he wants to, he often chooses to allow his diagnosis of ADHD to be an excuse for

tuning out in class. Two days in a row, as I went in to observe during social studies class, Charlie

asked to leave to use the restroom, only to be gone for at least ten minutes both times. What was

more, when he returned, he simply hopped on his Chromebook and started playing a game,

totally tuning out what was actually happening in the lesson. Though the period before, which is

his reading pullout class, I had seen him interacting with the lesson and the teacher, it was as if a

switch went off when he went to social studies, and, suddenly, he no longer wanted to learn. Not

only is his distractibility a problem because he does not learn what he is supposed to be learning,

but he also falls behind on task and does not complete the work he is supposed to be completing,

either – a factor which proves detrimental to his grades, though he is a smart student.

Interestingly enough, another one of Charlie’s weaknesses builds on to distractibility and

is actually the flip side of his strength of helpfulness. What I mean by this is that, while Charlie

is incredibly helpful to his classmates, understanding himself the difference that a helping hand

can make, he sometimes goes too far in helping to the point that he does not get his own work

done. Thus, helping others can become a distraction to him, as well. This makes sense to me,

after our discussion last week about what the symptoms of ADHD tend to look like in students.

One person in our class described individuals with ADHD as not being able to attend to one

thing because they are too aware of everything that is going on in their environment. Charlie

likely notices more than other students do in the way of the classroom environment and, thus,

gets distracted trying to help everyone that he can. To go back to the example I gave earlier when

I talked about Charlie’s strength of helpfulness, where he was sharing an answer or two with

another student who missed them on a guided viewing page for an in-class video being shown,

his looking at other students’ papers convinced me that he was missing answers as he was
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helping the other student. Thus, it would benefit him to learn when the best time is to help others

and when he should prioritize his own work.

Aside from the ADHD-related struggles Charlie faces in school, two of his biggest

academic areas of need are related to his dyslexia and reading comprehension disability. When I

interviewed the learning support teacher, these weaknesses were the first thing that he pointed

out to me. The significance of these difficulties in Charlie’s education are demonstrated in the

fact that he only has one IEP goal, which reads as follows: “Given instructional level reading

passages, the student will read and comprehend literary nonfiction, fiction, and informational

text by answering comprehension questions to determine the main idea and demonstrate

understanding of key details with at least seventy percent accuracy on three out of five samples

for the duration of the IEP.” Charlie himself, as documented in his IEP, stated that he has trouble

completing reading and writing activities, listening to presentations and presenting, and studying

and taking tests, all of which activities are intimately connected to the ability to read with

understanding. This difficulty in reading and comprehending is also, I believe, a factor in why he

is so inconsistent with completing his work and attending in class.

Findings and Conclusions

In light of Charlie’s strengths and weaknesses that I observed in the classroom and

learned more about from his teachers, I would say that his main areas of needs and goals lie

within the realm of reading comfortability and comprehension. Pretty much anything in life

requires an ability to not only attend to a passage but to understand and retain what was read with

the goal of using it. Thus, reading is not just a skill that must be mastered for academic purposes

– it must be mastered for the purpose of living. Charlie’s inability to attend to a passage for a

long period of time is one specific aspect of reading comprehension that inhibits his learning.
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Thus, attention skills is one big area in which he needs to grow. As he grows in his ability to pay

attention to what he reads, I think he will grow also in his ability to understand it as well, which

is probably the other biggest area, academically, in which I see need for growth. Non-

academically, I think that the most important area for Charlie to grow in his responsibility, for

although he is mature in a lot of ways, he does not treat his schoolwork with much responsibility.

As he approaches the transition into high school, it is vital that he takes his learning into his own

hands, as teachers will not be inclined to babysit him, giving him even less support than they do

in middle school. Moreover, in his IEP, it was indicated that he hopes to go into the military

upon graduation in a few years, and responsibility is a big requirement of service. A simple but

critical goal that goes along with responsibility is that of simple assignment completion.

Though Charlie’s needs and goals may seem to pose an insurmountable challenge, they

are being met in certain ways even now. For example, his struggle with reading comprehension

is being met in his visiting the pull-out reading classroom every morning to go over vocabulary

words and review stories the class has read to check for and build understanding. More than that,

he is aided by the whole laundry list of services delineated in his IEP, which also address his

struggle with attention by providing for things like shorter assignments and allowances for

breaks during testing. In terms of Charlie’s need for increasing responsibility, the learning

support teacher confided in me that he sometimes puts Charlie in classroom leadership positions

in which his own progress as well as that of his peers depends on how well he stays on task. This

strategy of the teacher’s aids Charlie by forcing him in a very minor way to attend to his

responsibilities or face the social repercussions that will inevitably follow if he does not.

Not only does Charlie receive individual support as his teachers strive to meet his needs

and help him fulfill his goals, but he also receives support in the way his classes are conducted in
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general. As there are quite a lot of students with IEPs that come through the middle school in this

particular area, the teachers seem to incorporate a lot of Universal Design for Learning strategies

and accommodations into their teaching. For example, the social studies teacher, Mrs. Troyan,

runs her class in a very discussion- and activity-based way rather than relying heavily on lectures

and textbooks. This method allows students like Charlie who struggle with reading and listening

to both understand and focus better. It is a classroom organization style that benefits all the

students rather than solely those needing special considerations. Another whole-class strategy

that I noticed being used in the reading support classroom was that of playing games as a class

and allowing students to move to different seats. Getting students with ADHD up and moving

around in an organized way is very beneficial for them. However, most middle schoolers benefit

from being given a chance to get out of their seats, so the strategy proves helpful to all students.

The fact that students both in need of special services and those not in need benefit from

having classes together is one of the reasons why inclusion classrooms are so important in a

healthy school. For Charlie, in particular, I think the inclusion classroom with just one or two

learning support classes each day is an ideal placement. For one thing, Charlie is too social of a

student to be kept in a room with a handful of like peers all day. He needs the diversity and

opportunity for challenge that the general education setting provides. Yet, at the same time, I

think he also benefits immensely from getting the intensive attention that he does in the learning

support classroom. Since it is a smaller class, he is not able to fly so easily under the radar when

he is not paying attention and is thus prompted to better attend to what is going on.

While Charlie’s placement seems appropriate to meet his needs and facilitate

achievement of his goals, it does not seem like his parents are involved much, if at all, in his

education, other than to give their consent to his IEP goals and services. In reading through the
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IEP, I did not notice any mention of parental responsibilities. I do not think that this is that

significant of an issue, though, because Charlie’s needs can mostly be met in school.

Recommendations

In light of all that has been said, I would not recommend a change in terms of placement.

As I mentioned before, Charlie seems to benefit from having a separate classroom where he can

go and receive more attention in areas like reading and math with which he struggles. In order

for him to make a strong transition into high school, I think that, for the duration of his eighth

grade year and the commencement of his ninth grade year, he should be given the opportunity to

continue to receive this intensive service. Yet interacting with his peers remains a vitally

important outlet for him, so the inclusion setting with pullout classes seems just right.

In addition to Charlie’s educational placement, I also think that the services he is

currently provided are extensive enough to meet his needs if they are thoroughly implemented,

which I believe they are. I did not have too much opportunity to see them in place, though, as I

was not in class on a test day or a day when an assignment was being completed that could have

choices removed or needed the directions to be read aloud specifically to him by a teacher.

At the same time that Charlie’s placement and services seem appropriate, I think that the

strategies in place in the classroom could be improved so as to better Charlie’s education. For

example, I asked the learning support teacher in our interview whether he thought that Charlie

would benefit from only being given pencil-and-paper assignments, and he wholeheartedly

agreed that that would help keep Charlie on task. However, many administrators and community

members would likely look negatively upon the decision, seeing it as the taking away of essential

tools of learning. This is why Chromebooks remain the norm in the district. Personally, though, I

think the Chromebook poses too much of a temptation for distraction to students, especially to
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those with ADHD. Thus, a strategy I would propose would be to only allow Charlie his laptop

for working on things for which it is essential that he have it. It could even be used as an

incentive for him to stay focused in class – if he does a good job throughout all of class, he can

get it to play games for five minutes of RTI time, or something along those lines. I have seen this

strategy prove fairly effective with another student in another observation, and, though she was

younger, I wonder if it might just work for Charlie as well. While I think it is good that he has a

primary goal for reading comprehension, I would recommend that he also have one for attention,

something like, “The student will demonstrate good listening skills (eyes on the teacher, body

facing forward, pencil in hand, and mouth quiet) for more than 75% of the school day 4 out of

the 5 days of the week for the duration of the IEP.” While I understand that ADHD is a learning

disability, I think, as an eighth grader preparing to go into high school, Charlie can stand being

held a little more accountable for the effort he puts forth toward paying attention in class.

Conclusion

In closing, it was truly a unique experience and a privilege to observe Charlie, as it gave

me a glimpse into life as a student with learning disabilities. Too often we assume our students

are all the same or all like us and do not fully consider the supports that could be given them to

make their education a more fruitful journey. What I have taken away from this case study is that

I should never look upon a student as simply normal but should always get to know them and

their situation to really understand what will best help them to succeed – not only in school, but

in life.