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visual-perceptual tasks were mixed with stronger performance on tasks that do not involve visual-motor manipulation.

Fine and Gross Motor Functioning

Motor functioning includes fine motor skills such as handwriting and tracing as well as gross motor skills such as balance, coordination, and gait. Mrs. Drogan reported that Oscar tends to be accident prone and clumsy. However, his clumsiness does not hinder his daily functioning and has not been observed by his teacher Ms. Hawthorne. Gross motor skills were not assessed as part of this evaluation.

Behavioral and Social-Emotional Functioning

Information about Oscar’s behavior was gathered from Mr. and Mrs. Drogan, Oscar’s guardians, and Ms. Hawthorne, Oscar’s special education teacher from last year who provided in-class support for him. Oscar qualifies for special education services under the category of Emotional Disability. According to his guardians and teacher, Oscar can be anxious and very reserved in new situations and sometimes lies or deceives to avoid undesirable tasks. He has poor self-control and often acts without thinking. He can be pessimistic and irritable at times. He’s not easily angered, but sometimes becomes upset or overly emotional. At home, he’s often fearful. Over the last year, however, Oscar’s teachers and guardians report that his emotional stability and anxious-avoidant behaviors have shown marked improvement. Both at home and school, Oscar exhibits strong social skills111111111and gets along well with peers and adults. He also displays good coping skills and manages transitions well.

Diagnostic Summary

Based on an evaluation of Oscar’s history and background, guardian and teacher reports, school records, and test results, Oscar exhibits a pattern of strengths and weaknesses consistent with an oral and written language learning disability (OWL-LD) and dysgraphia. Oscar’s behavior at school and at home indicates a high probability of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Oscar showed relative strengths in certain types of verbal and nonverbal reasoning, math computation, phonological awareness, and decoding. Oscar exhibited normative weaknesses in oral expression, listening comprehension, basic reading skill, reading fluency skills, reading comprehension, written expression, writing fluency, and handwriting. Processing weaknesses were identified in visual-motor skills, auditory and visual working memory, and processing speed. His most significant impairments involve language comprehension, grammar, reading fluency, spelling, and written expression (productivity, grammar, mechanics). Oscar’s impairments are not better explained by a visual, hearing, or motor disability, intellectual disability, emotional disturbance, cultural factors, environmental or economic disadvantage, limited English proficiency, or a lack of appropriate instruction. Oscar’s congenital hearing defect in one ear, his excessive absences from school last year, and his

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symptoms of emotional disturbance are not su cient to explain the profile of academic strengths and weaknesses observed.

Oscar’s cognitive and learning profile is consistent with OWL-LD, which is also known as a language processing disorder or language learning disability. Oscar’s profile is not characteristic of dyslexia, which is typically characterized by core deficits in phonological awareness and decoding with adequate listening comprehension and grammar skills. Characteristics of OWL-LD include the following:

•Low oral reading and spelling with similarly low FSIQ (no discrepancy)

•Impaired morphological and syntactic awareness and often word retrieval

•Impaired working memory

•Relative strength in nonword reading/decoding but persisting impairments in comprehension and real word reading

•Di culty understanding jokes and figurative language

Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the following diagnoses are well supported:

Specific Learning Disorder with impairments in

315.0 Reading (reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension)

315.2 Written Expression (spelling accuracy, grammar, and punctuation, and clarity/organization of written expression)

111111111

315.39 Language Disorder

Oscar also exhibits a profile that is consistent with dysgraphia. Characteristics of dysgraphia include the following:

• Handwriting and spelling problems despite normal motor function

• Poor positioning of letters on the line and spacing of letters and words

• Poor and inconsistent letter formation

• Poor fluency in writing legible letters and copying

• Impaired orthographic coding and the orthographic loop of working memory

• Errors in math-related writing such as alignment and placement of numerals during computation

• Di culty with finger sequencing/ succession

Follow up testing with a speech and language pathologist and audiologist is recommended to provide more in-depth information about Oscar’s articulation and speech sound perception abilities. In addition, further evaluation by a psychiatrist or pediatrician is recommended to provide additional treatment recommendations for ADHD.

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Recommendations

On the basis of these findings, the following recommendations are made:

Language and Literacy

When teaching Oscar to read and spell new words, incorporate all five language blocks of word study: phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, semantic and

vocabulary knowledge, morphological knowledge, and mental orthographic images.

Plan complementary oral and written expression instruction to improve subject-verb agreement, pronoun and verb usage, and sentence structure.

Plan complementary reading and spelling instruction. Avoid using graded spelling lists that may include words above Oscar’s reading level.

Morphological Analysis (for reading and spelling)

Improve Oscar’s ability to recognize meaningful units of words, including (-an, -og), roots (aqua, gen), and a xes (-ed, pre-).

Study groups of derived words together111111111(e.g., magic, magical, magically, magician) and words that share a common feature (e.g., librarian, politician, musician).

Study the ways in which adding derivational su xes changes the pronunciation and/or syllable stress of the word.

Reading Fluency

Always emphasize accuracy and careful reading over speed. Discourage Oscar’s tendency to “guess and go” while reading.

Improve reading fluency at the level of the word, phrase, sentence, and passage. Practice reading new or challenging words in isolation prior to reading them

in text.

Orally read “phrase cards” and track the time needed to read them accurately. Neurological impress method: Paired reading where the student and an adult read

the same text almost simultaneously.

Listening and Reading Comprehension

Simplify the language of instruction and allow Oscar extra time to process language.

Use visual supports and graphic organizers to support comprehension when listening and reading.

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Prepare Oscar to listen or read. Give text previews. Prime background knowledge. Teach self-monitoring strategies (summarize, paraphrase, question) and fix-up

strategies (reread, read aloud, question, ask for repetition).

Writing

Teach handwriting and letter formation skills to improve Oscar’s writing fluency. Keyboarding is an important skill, but should not replace handwriting altogether. Encourage proper letter formation and work on speed only when letter formation is well established and legible.

Provide an authentic context for communication. Write for a purpose and an audience.

Use story starters and graphic organizers.

Provide instruction to strengthen both oral expression and written expression. Strengthen grammatical knowledge (in speaking and writing). Ask Oscar to recognize structurally correct sentences, build sentences with word cards,

and formulate sentences that follow a particular structure.

Spelling

Traditional spelling lists/tests are not likely to improve Oscar’s spelling skills. Provide spelling instruction that proceeds from recognition to partial recall to full recall. For recognition, Oscar would circle/point to the correct spelling among distractors. For partial recall,111111111 he spells words by filling in the missing letters (e.g., b _ nd). Begin with only one or two missing letters, working up to filling in all the blanks.

Teach explicit spelling strategies. Oscar can recognize the correct spelling of a word, but he does not seem to use this knowledge as a strategy for spelling. Teach Oscar to generate alternative spellings for words that are di cult for him to spell (or whenever he spells a word that “doesn’t look right”). This strategy allows him to utilize his strength in recognition spelling.

Look-say-cover-write-check. Look carefully at the word you’re trying to spell and notice the parts of the word that are tricky. Say the word as you’re looking at it. Cover it up, and write the word as you say it. Finally, uncover the word and check your spelling as you say the word again. Repeat as needed.

Encourage morphological analysis and spelling by analogy as strategies for spelling.

Attention and Working Memory

Discuss the option of an FM system with Oscar and his IEP team. Oscar is extremely exhausted every day after school and he may be experiencing auditory fatigue as a result of his hearing loss in one ear. An FM system may reduce auditory fatigue and improve his attention during class.