Case Study 1 - David had just turned 10 years old

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CASE STUDY 1:  David

David had just turned 10 years old and completed the fourth grade when his parents brought him to the Reading Center in June. During the parent interview, his parents reported that David’s reading problems had persisted through his school history. His parents said his physical development was normal except for an operation he had when he was an infant to correct a “cross-eyed” condition. Since David had begun school, his vision had been checked every year with the Snellen chart and appeared to be normal.

David’s parents reported that he was a very happy, likeable boy. He enjoyed sports, such as running and swimming, but did not like sports like baseball which required motor skills such as catching balls. Before starting school, David had been enthusiastic about reading, but he had developed an aversion to it as he experienced failure. Now he avoided reading. When he was required to read a book, he selected easy ones with large print. When David’s cumulative school records were examined, they confirmed that he had experienced continuing problems in reading.

However, he was more successful in other academic areas. In an interview with his fourth grade teacher, she described him as having a bad attitude toward reading and said he attempted to avoid it. She also said that at the end of the year, David was reading with the lowest group in the last half of a second grade reader, while the remainder of the class was on grade level. She said David had particular problems with oral reading, and he frequently lost place in the text.

In an interview with David, he said he did not want to be at the Reading Center. When asked about reading, David seemed to understand that the purpose of reading is to gather information. He said he read outside of school, and that he only read things when they were assigned. He was quite reluctant to participate in the diagnosis, particularly in reading orally to the reading teacher, a great deal of time was spent convincing him to cooperate and to read the passages presented.

Tests administered and the results are presented below:

Informal Reading Inventory

Word Recognition List

Independent                                  Level Primer

Instructional                                 Level Grade 1

Oral Passage Reading

Independent                                  Level Primer

Instructional                                 Level Grade 1

Silent Passage Reading

Independent                                  Level Grade 1

Instructional                                 Level Grade 2

Listening                                     Level Grade 5

David maintained adequate oral reading and comprehension scores from the preprimer through the second grade levels. His words recognition broke down at the third grade level.

Consequently, he was unable to comprehend at that level. An analysis of his miscues at all levels of the IRI showed that he rarely tried to sound unknown words. However, he supplied words in the text that make sense contextually.

David’s mother reported that David had always passed the hearing screening test that was administered at his school. However, he had been referred to an ophthalmologist after his last vision screening test. The ophthalmologist told David’s parents that his near point vision, far point vision, and color perception were all in the normal range, but that he had problems with depth perception and binocular vision at both the far point and near point ranges.

David was reluctant to participate throughout the diagnosis, especially when asked to read longer text.

Questions for Case Study 1: David

Question 1  Considering both environmental and individual factors, which of these might be related to David’s reading problem? Substantiate your answer by citing evidence.

Question 2    Does David have a reading disability? Substantiate your answer.

Question 3    What seems to be David’s major area of reading disability? Substantiate your answer.

Question 4   At what grade level do you think instruction should begin? Why?